Nowhere Left To Run
by virginiablack517
Summary: Bo Dennis is a serial killer who's been on the run for years without friends, family or solace - and without knowing who or what she is and why she feels the compulsion to kill. She's never been able to stop herself – until the night she meets Lauren Lewis. (Formerly The Black Maneuvers, Vol. 3. Standalone AU, OOC, Doccubus.)
1. Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

The subway car rumbled through the night, shaking Bo awake when it bounced her head off the dark, dirty window. Startled, she glanced around without turning her head and checked her immediate surroundings for any threats.

 _No cops, no thugs, no creeps,_ she thought. _All clear._

Bo exhaled, though it did nothing to ease the tension in her shoulders. She tried to eke a little more warmth from her black leather jacket by pulling it tighter around her chest, but the cold, late January air somehow managed to reach inside the train. Her clothes weren't helping her any. A skirt this short wasn't designed to keep her warm, but tonight comfort wasn't her highest priority.

Bo was tired, irritable and hungry in more ways than one. It was after midnight and she hadn't eaten anything since yesterday afternoon. She hadn't _fed_ in almost three weeks. That was a personal worst, and the last time she'd waited this long, things had gotten messy. She was in no hurry to repeat that fuckup, but right now her body ached with painful cramps that seized her muscles without warning. This time, she might not have a choice.

She started to sweat despite the cold, and pulled the jacket tighter still.

It had been a long day, and would be a long night. She'd worked a late shift at the hotel bar where she'd been working for nearly a week for daily cash. The bar manager didn't seem creepy or like he'd try to hustle her for sex on the side - not that she'd mind - but instead had hired her under the table to cut his costs.

Other than his questionable business practices, the manager seemed upstanding. Just tonight he'd helped Bo kick out some leech of a man who'd tried to drug Bo with a dosed cocktail. Bo had then asked to take off a little early, claiming she didn't feel well. It had been the truth. She hadn't felt well at all, but mostly, she'd wanted to escape before the cops he'd called arrived.

She didn't want to end up on the cops' radar.

Another cramp hit her in the midsection, and Bo clenched her body until it passed. They were getting worse, and she took several quick breaths, trying to ease her muscles and stave off the hunger a little longer. She took another look around the car, sizing up the other riders, but knew they weren't an option. There were a dozen people on the train, and though most of them appeared to be riding alone, she couldn't take the chance.

She was too out in the open, and someone would see.

Bo closed her eyes again, and willed the train to travel faster.

The subway car was empty of everyone but Bo by the time it reached the end of the line. She kept her head down to hide her face from the train's surveillance cameras as she left the car, and walked the length of the dirty, graffiti-covered platform. A quick climb up a flight of urine-stained stairs took her toward the sparse lights of the warehouse district.

She could have driven here and arrived hours sooner, but her car would have been memorable in this neighborhood and she needed to keep a low profile. Tonight, she needed to be another face in the crowd.

Not that she'd even been successful at blending in with the crowd.

The more modern and active warehouses near the train morphed into older buildings with fewer lights, and then abandoned buildings with no lights at all. Pale moonlight lit the center of the street, but the chipped, filthy sidewalks were completely covered and dark. A couple blocks ahead, she could make out the quickly moving forms of street dogs, and she hoped their paths didn't cross. This part of the city was so empty and abandoned, knee-high weeds grew in the middle of the street. Old industrial train tracks had been worn down to the same level as the nearby asphalt, and the only sounds besides Bo's quiet, rapid steps were the distant wails of trains.

Half a block ahead on her side of the street, a bulky shadow passed through the moonlight then back into the dark. As Bo walked closer, the shadow resolved itself into the shape of a large man in a thick winter coat and skullcap, his face clouded by the steam of his own breath until it cleared. Bo knew the exact moment that he saw her, because he gave her a malevolent smile as he sized her up, and she knew he was the kind of man who harbored nothing but bad intentions.

Bo supposed she could have been worried. After all, she was a young woman walking alone in a bad part of town late at night, wearing little to hide her assets from the elements. She wasn't worried, though - not even a little bit.

She was relieved he was alone.

Her heart beat thumped in her ears. Bo felt her nipples tighten with something other than the cold, and the muscles of her thighs twitched in anticipation of a hard fuck that would take the edge off her hunger. The cramps in her belly eased for the first time in hours.

Twenty minutes later, she hid his smiling dead body behind a dumpster in a dark alley already piled high with long deserted trash. She figured it would be days - weeks maybe - before someone noticed the smell enough to find him.

By then, she'd be long gone.

 ** _TBC. Feedback encouraged! I'm going for dark and angsty here, and want to know if I'm hitting my mark. ~VB517 ( virginiablk517)_**


	2. Chapter 2

[ **Author's Note:** This story was originally posted as an experiment. I rewrote the first chapter, so if you haven't read this in awhile, you may want to go back and start over. The first three chapters will be familiar to those who read the original experimental post I started last year, but they've been expanded, and I'm now continuing the story. -VB517]

CHAPTER 2

Bo paid cash at the door and let the tall, brutish attendant stamp her hand for entry. He gave her a bit of side-eye, but she knew he wasn't going to throw her out. She didn't look a day over nineteen, though she was nearly ten years older, but she had to admit that his instincts were right about her fake identification.

Still, if they threw out everyone with a fake ID in this place, they wouldn't make much money.

The "club" was a large, unused warehouse that had been taken over for the night - most likely without a permit, and probably without the owner's knowledge. The entryway smelled like something unholy had died in here and only recently been cleared away with the most potent bleach on the planet. Bo was certain that the dark corners hid all kinds of trash - both from old industrial waste and from years of squatters.

She followed the flow of traffic down poorly lit corridors and a flight of wide metal stairs toward the boom of electronic dance music. On the old factory floor, at least two hundred people were dancing, drinking and courting debauchery. Some of them had already achieved said debauchery, if her reading of the energy in several dark corners was any indication.

Three different makeshift bars were set up around the massive room, and at one end of the wide-open space, an amphetamine-fueled DJ bounced on a rudimentary plywood stage elevated above the building's concrete floor. The stage was guarded by a handful of guys who looked more like drug dealers than bouncers.

Bo figured they were both.

The room smelled of rusty metal, sweat and arousal that she could literally taste in the air - a sweet musk she savored on her tongue as she meandered through the edges of the crowd. It was a smorgasbord for Bo. She'd fed from the man on the street, but it wasn't enough. The cramps didn't hurt as much but she still ached all over. She needed more, and she needed it enough that she pushed the possible consequences from her mind.

When she was on the hunt, Bo could forget what she was for just a few hours. The guilt wouldn't hit until after, but for now, all of her senses and concentration were on the next hit. Moving through the packed press of people, she let the beat of the music set her pace, let the scent of human lust pull her around the room, and became one with the earthy energy of excess that clubs like this dispensed like a drug.

Bo walked over to one of the bars to order a cocktail she had no intention of drinking. Alcohol would only make things worse. What they served her didn't matter as long as she was holding something in her hands. It would attract too much attention if she weren't drinking at all. Bo walked a fine line - she needed to attract her prey, but she didn't want to be memorable to anyone else.

Drink in hand, she faded once more into the crowd. Bo walked the periphery of the dance floor, prowling - hunting - looking for the odd man or woman out who was dancing alone, awkward, not to be noticed right away if he or she or they went missing. She hated that it was necessary, but knew that she'd gotten good at the hunt. Bo was skilled at avoiding the wrong kind of attention - those who wondered who she was, where she was from, why she was alone, why she didn't ever offer any details about herself.

And she was very good at attracting those she had every intention of killing. She didn't want them to end up dead, but that didn't stop it from happening.

Bo didn't want to be a killer, and would spend weeks if not months after lamenting every death that was her fault, but tonight she would push those dark thoughts from her mind, give into the chase, capture her victims and surrender to the hunger that she could not control. For a brief moment - when it was all over but before the guilt and shame came crashing down on her again - she would relish in the warmth of being pain-free and the ecstasy of being _full_.

###

Almost an hour later, the cramps had started again, and Bo felt an urgency that made her testy. She glanced again at her most likely first candidate - a lanky loner who looked like he hadn't had many clean and sober days of late. He wouldn't be enough for her on his own, but added to what she'd already fed on this night, and with perhaps one more before she left the club, he'd be -

Someone was watching her.

She never understood how she knew, but Bo had learned long ago to trust her instincts. She could feel the weight of it on the back of her neck - the discomfort of unwanted attention.

Bo pretended to take a sip of her drink and slowly looked around her immediate surroundings until -

There.

 _Whoa_.

Not ten paces from where Bo leaned against a makeshift high-top table that was an old metal toolbox tipped on one end, a woman stood staring at her.

A beautiful woman was staring at her.

A beautiful woman was staring at her and smiling _._

Bo couldn't help but stare back.

Her admirer was tall and fit, with slim yet muscular arms revealed by a light-colored sleeveless top. Long blond hair fell in sweeping waves across her shoulders. Bo wondered how the woman wasn't cold, then realized the room was considerably warmer than outside. This many people generated a lot of body heat.

The woman had a jacket tossed over one arm and with the other raised one of the clear plastic cups from the bar to her lips. After a slow sip of her drink while looking at Bo, she smiled again, showing off her smooth, angular jaw, and then - adorably - raised a hand in greeting. She turned to speak to her companions at the table - two other women who were clearly together and seemed to be lost in each other - though she kept her eyes on Bo.

 _Oh, shit._ Bo mentally shook her head and tried to think of a way to disappear. This one was out of her league and not a good idea. Bo had rules. Loners only. Never pick up someone who'd be missed - and certainly not someone who'd be missed right away.

The woman finished her drink, set down her cup, and headed straight for Bo.

And it was too late for Bo to make her escape.

###

 _ **TBC. Comments and feedback encouraged! ~VB517 (at virginiablk517)**_


	3. Chapter 3

[ ** _Author's Note:_** _Thanks for the feedback so far! It's much appreciated. This chapter takes us to the end of the original scene from 2016, but believe me when I say we're just getting started._

 _Side note: for those of you who enjoyed "Big City Blues" and posted reviews here on FF, please consider posting a review for the published version on Amazon. Once this story is done, I'm thinking about posting a short or two over on the website as well, before I jump into FF again with another Lost Girl story. I can't seem to quit #Doccubus just yet._

 _As always, thank you so much for reading. ~VB517]_

 **Chapter 3**

By the time Bo remembered that she was predator and not prey, she was already captive.

As the woman moved closer, Bo saw that she was a couple of inches taller than Bo had thought. They were nearly eye-to-eye. The dance lights shifted, and Bo noticed brown eyes and pale pink lips with a light sheen of gloss. Bo gasped - this woman wasn't beautiful. She was stunning.

This was bad.

Those perfectly sculpted lips were forming words, but the music was too loud for Bo to hear any of them.

Almost against her will, she leaned closer and tilted her head. "What?"

The woman smiled and spoke again, but - again - Bo couldn't make out a single word, until she managed to pick out one. _Lauren._

Bo knew better than to give her real name. "Mel!" She shouted, and Lauren grinned and said something else.

Bo shrugged with a smile and shook her head as she pointed at her own ear.

Lauren rolled her eyes with a smile of her own. The music morphed from one song to another, and Lauren's smile widened. She took Bo by the hand and turned towards the dance floor, pulling Bo behind her with a soft but inextricable grip.

Lauren stopped in the middle of the floor, where the bodies were so thick that their density pushed the two of them together, and she began to move.

She was a good dancer.

Her hips kept the beat of bass and drums while her shoulders moved to the melody. Lauren pressed against Bo's hips lightly enough to allow movement, but firmly enough to stake a claim.

Bo's senses - already heightened by the state of her hunger - pinpointed on her dance partner. She thought about giving this woman some kind of brush off, but then Lauren's eyes met hers, and Bo couldn't pull away from that open, trusting look. Bo synchronized her dance to Lauren's steps, ever closer with each beat.

This was very bad.

Bo had traveled by car and train from her current home all the way to this shithole of a rave so she could hunt and feed without getting caught. With only one hit so far, she was still in dangerous shape. This woman - this _Lauren -_ wasn't a viable option, which meant that Bo was wasting time.

Lauren danced closer, and the gap between them shrank.

Bo felt her awareness split in two - her body kept time with the beat and with each subtle cue from Lauren, while her mind ranted and seethed about how dangerous this little dance was.

Lauren smiled at her again, and it warmed a part of Bo she'd kept hidden for so long, she'd forgotten it was there. The song seemed to last forever, and even though she knew this was the worst idea - _ever_ \- she didn't leave.

Then Lauren slipped behind her and pressed her hips to Bo's backside. Bo felt a surge of heat rise through her body. Lauren slid her hands around Bo's waist, and rested them low on Bo's belly while their hips continued in tandem. Bo felt a new hunger fill her and swallowed against a lump in her throat.

 _This is insane,_ Bo thought.

It _was_ insane. She'd been attracted to people before - hell, she was attracted to damned near everyone with a pulse - but this woman made her feel something new. This was more than the usual hint of sex, though she knew Lauren wanted her. As they moved, navigating the subtle cues of give and take, call and response, Bo felt something she hadn't felt in a long, long time.

It was the feeling of possibility.

She felt the soft press of lips against her ear.

"Stop worrying and just dance with me," Lauren shouted, and laughed.

Bo turned her head to look at Lauren. Lauren's eyes looked as if they were lit by something within instead of the dance lights, and Bo gave in.

She knew what would happen - she and Lauren would dance, and then at some point, Lauren would ask for her number. Bo would lie and say she'd forgotten her phone and give Lauren fake digits, or offer to take Lauren's number and lie about texting her later.

But after tonight, they'd never see each other again. And it would be a pain in the ass, but she would hunt more later tonight - somewhere else if not here - and feed from someone who wasn't stunning and sexy as fuck and here with her friends.

One dance bled into another, and another, and by the fourth interminable song, Lauren waved a hand at the perspiration on her forehead, gesturing that she needed a break.

 _You need to get going, Bo. No good can come from this._

Lauren took Bo by the hand again, and led her toward one of the bars to get another drink. Bo wasn't saying much, but hadn't let go of Lauren's hand. She looked around the room while Lauren fought the crowd to get to the bar.

Now, wherever Bo looked, she didn't see the loners or the easy prey. Now she saw only couples, pairs of people in every configuration imaginable - the way they looked at each other and moved together. She could read their energy, bright and constant instead of the pulse of lust, and could tell which of those pairs were the real thing. The loving and the loved. The devoted.

Bo knew that such things weren't for her, but she wondered when it was that she'd given up on them. It'd been years, she knew - years since she'd let herself ache for a partner, a lover who'd be alive come morning, who would love her for who she was - in spite of what she was. Not that she knew.

The loneliness that she'd learned long ago to keep at bay showed up to punch her in the gut.

"Hey," Lauren said.

Bo nearly jumped in surprise, and turned her head back toward the bar. "Yeah?"

Lauren was holding up two cups in her other hand, one directed at Bo. She seemed determined to hold onto Bo's hand. Bo supposed that she could have pulled away, but she hadn't yet.

Once she held her drink, Bo took a sip for appearances, but was surprised to discover that the cocktail was actually good. She took another sip. She wasn't likely to lose control now - Lauren was completely off the table and her hunting in this rave was over now that someone had really seen her.

Now that _Lauren_ had really seen her.

Lauren pulled their intertwined hands to Bo's face, and slid her thumb across Bo's cheek before letting their clasped hands fall. "Whatever it is, don't think about it for the rest of the night. Ok?" She smiled at Bo, tilting her head with her eyebrows raised until Bo smiled back.

"Okay," Bo said. Maybe for just a little while, she could pretend. Act like she was a normal human woman, enjoying the company of a beautiful woman who happened to be a talented dancer, and for once in her miserable life, relax.

A few minutes later, drinks in hand, they stood to one side of a makeshift stage where the DJ was crafting loud mash-ups of popular dance music.

"I wasn't going to come out tonight," Lauren yelled into her ear. "Sheila and Fren talked me into it."

"Well, you know your way around a dance floor, Lauren." Bo couldn't help it. She had an innate ability to be whoever was required, to set her marks at ease by going along to get along, to belay suspicion. Even though Lauren wasn't a mark, it was hard to break her habit of being whoever she needed to be to keep someone interested. "So I'd say the pleasure was all mine."

"Not yet," Lauren flirted, much to Bo's surprise. "But I'm going to be uncharacteristically forward since I'm celebrating tonight, and tell you that I really want to kiss you." And then, to Bo's amazement, Lauren visibly blushed.

 _Oh, sweet Jesus._ Who _was_ this woman? Hell, if Bo had imagined a woman perfect for her, Lauren's delectable mix of calm and refined poise, quirky gestures and sexual energy put that ideal to shame.

Lauren was everything Bo could ever want, and never have. A kiss would be a really bad idea, but Bo was more than tempted. She'd already imagined how Lauren might taste.

"What are you celebrating?" Bo tried to dodge.

Lauren looked down, her face almost coy, and shook her head. "Nope. Not telling. Kiss first." She laughed. "When I tell you, you might decide I'm too nerdy to kiss."

When she looked up again, Bo realized that she really wanted to kiss Lauren. It'd be stupid, but -

 _One kiss. And then I'm out of here._

Bo leaned forward, close enough to catch Lauren's light scent - and even her sweat smelled delicious - but stopped an inch away. Lauren closed the distance, and when their lips met, Bo closed her eyes.

All thought stopped. The first tentative touch gave way to a warmer, firmer contact, and when Lauren moved her lips against Bo's, Bo could no longer hear the music as her heartbeat pounded in her ears.

Lauren's tongue darted against Bo's lower lip, and Bo consented to the deeper kiss. Lauren's taste on her tongue made Bo's diaphragm clench, and a wave of arousal seized her entire body, leaving a mild ache in its wake.

Bo pulled away, lightheaded. As she watched Lauren's pupils dilate, Bo realized that she'd just pulsed her without intending to - that had never happened before. Was it because of the alcohol?

 _Fuck! Idiot!_ Bo glanced around quickly, hoping no one had seen, then back to Lauren in fear.

"Oh, my gods," Lauren said, her eyes wide. "You're-" She faltered, and then took a deep breath as she dropped her drink to the floor. Lauren clasped Bo's face in both her hands and pulled Bo into an openly wanton kiss, one Bo couldn't resist.

Deeper, fuller, slower - this kiss felt as if it involved their whole bodies, not only their lips. Lauren tasted like summer, and the scent of her arousal made Bo moan. She tasted like _life..._ and Bo was done for.

Lauren pulled away, her eyes still closed. She was the most beautiful creature Bo had ever seen, and it made something near her heart ache, but then a monster of a body cramp hit her, and she was powerless against it.

 _More._

It was risky - hell it was _stupid,_ but Bo no longer cared. She had to have her.

Bo grabbed Lauren's hand and led her behind the stage. She looked everywhere as she walked, combing the shadows for any security or groups of stoners or _anyone_ really, and pulled Lauren towards a hall she could barely make out, around a corner, then another, until she found a dark deserted nook. She stopped and pressed Lauren against the nearest wall.

Lauren was willing.

Bo kissed her again, and Lauren let her, but this time, it was deep, and raw and hungry. Bo pressed against Lauren's shoulders, then grasped Lauren's waist, melding their bodies at the hip.

Lauren moaned, but kissed Bo back, her hips moving in a slow, deliberate dance of a different kind. Bo was swept away. She hadn't intended for things to go any further, but now...

Lauren pulled away to draw a breath, her pupils still dilated, but her face was serious. She said something, but Bo couldn't hear anything anymore.

She pressed her lips to Lauren's again, felt the moan in Lauren's body in response, then let a whisper of space fall between them - and began to feed.

The taste of Lauren's kiss was sweet, yes, but the taste of the energy that Bo drew from Lauren was far sweeter and Bo's head spun with every bit she consumed. The cramps eased, the aches faded, her tiny pains healed, and her strength returned with every passing second. The arousal she'd felt just a moment ago eased into a low simmer as Lauren's eyes faded, unseeing.

And suddenly, Bo could recall what Lauren had been trying to say.

 _"I know what you are."_

Bo knew she couldn't stop. She didn't know how, but that had never stopped her from wishing she could. How many times had she tried to keep herself from killing when she fed? How many times had she failed?

 _"I know what you are."_

Lauren seized, and made a choking sound, her body starting to lilt to the side, but Bo held her in place and wouldn't let her fall. Her mind always fought, and always failed, because Bo was a killer, and there was nothing to be done.

 _"I know what you are."_

 _Stop._

Bo drank deeply, tasted the change that meant her prey was no longer aroused and present, but unconscious and losing what little life force remained.

 _Stop it. You're killing her._

In the ten years since her first kill, she had never, _ever_ stopped a feed once she'd begun.

 _Bo Dennis, you stop this right now. Dear gods - Lauren. Stop stop stop STOP_

Summoning will she didn't know she possessed, Bo tore her mouth away and stopped feeding - and then stood frozen in awe.

She drew breath in and out too quickly, panting in surprise and fear. How had this happened? What had she done differently? Was it her - or was it something about this woman?

Bo lowered Lauren to the ground and dropped Lauren's wrist twice trying to check for a pulse.

 _Lauren. Please._

A fast, faint beat met her fingers. Lauren was alive.

Bo dropped her head in relief.

 _Thank the gods._

Then the panic began. Her mind was racing - what was she going to do now? What if this woman remembered her? She was struck with horror. If Lauren ID'd her, she was fucked. She'd have to hide off the grid again, and the last time that happened -

Fear for her own safety drove every other thought from her mind, and battled the shock of what Lauren had said and what Bo had done and what it might mean.

How many people had she killed who might have lived if she'd only been more driven to save them?

 _Oh, don't go there, Bo. Not right now._

She wiped her hands off on her skirt, though she had no idea why, and stood up. She looked around, but there was still no one nearby. No one had seen anything. Lauren wasn't dead. So now what?

 _Leave,_ a voice said inside her - and one she wasn't happy to hear. _Run, now, before someone finds you. Or kill her now so she can't ID you._

She shook her head against her own dark thoughts. No, she couldn't kill Lauren. Not now - and she'd never killed anyone like that. Fed from them, yes, but she couldn't help that. This - this would be cold-blooded murder.

 _Then go. Now._

Bo reached down to cover Lauren with her own coat - she couldn't very well leave her here to freeze to death after all the effort it had taken to keep her alive - and then stepped away. She moved faster the further she got from Lauren's unconscious body.

A few winding turns and she was backstage again, peering around the wall. The rave was still in full swing. No one was looking this way, or coming to investigate anything. There was no sign of Lauren's friends. Bo could step back out there, and make her way to the exit and no one would know anything.

Bo didn't move.

 _What_ , Lauren had said. Not who. What.

She couldn't leave Lauren behind, couldn't let someone else find her, and while she thought that she was merely making sure that Lauren didn't somehow turn her in, she knew that wasn't the true reason she was going back. It was just an excuse.

Lauren knew what Bo was, which meant she knew more than Bo did.

Bo turned back towards the hall where she'd left Lauren. She had no idea how she was going to get that woman out of here, or what she was going to do when Lauren woke up, but she wasn't going to leave her.

This was new territory for Bo, and she was terrified. She hoped it wasn't the biggest mistake of her life.

 ** _TBC. Comments and feedback encouraged! ~VB517 (at virginiablk517 on Twitter)_**


	4. Chapter 4

_**Author's Note: Thank you all for your support and reviews so far. It means so much to me to have you join me on this adventure - particularly when I've picked a path that has me toying with Lost Girl canon. For those of you on Twitter, give me a follow at virginiablk517.**_

 _ **As always, not my characters, not my sandbox. I'm only borrowing them for a short while.**_

 _ **Now, back to the story. ~VB517**_

 **Chapter 4**

Bo lifted her foot from the gas pedal for the third time and brought the car back under the speed limit. She glanced at the passenger seat to make sure Lauren hadn't fallen forward again.

She was glad there wasn't any ice on this road. Bo had nearly crashed the stolen car once already when the passenger seat belt hadn't held her unconscious captive tightly enough and Lauren had toppled over and smacked her forehead on the dash. When Bo had stretched an arm to push Lauren back against the seat, her other hand had slipped on the steering wheel. The car had swerved across two lanes of dark, rain-slick highway. She'd overcorrected to compensate, and the car had fishtailed before straightening out.

Now, for the eighteenth time, Bo asked herself what in the hell she was doing.

 _Attempted murder,_ she thought. _Kidnapping. Grand theft auto._

Bo had stolen a ten-year-old import sedan from a side street near the warehouse, and had managed to get an unconscious Lauren into it without attracting any attention. The car smelled like cigarette butts and old fast food bags, but it was a welcome and necessary acquisition. Now Bo was driving back to the trailhead where she'd parked her own car before hiking half a mile to the train. She prayed she wasn't leaving any trace of herself or Lauren in the car for anyone to find.

 _Fuck._

This was a mistake. A huge, epically monstrous mistake. Bo should have left this woman at the club. She should have -

 _"I know what you are."_

How was that possible? How could this stranger know what Bo was when Bo had been searching for what felt like forever and come up with nothing?

Still, Bo was clinging to the possibility of answers like it was a life preserver in the middle of an ocean.

Bo sighed and glanced again at Lauren to make sure she was secure. It became a predictable rotation - look at the road ahead, glance in the rear view mirror to make sure imaginary cops hadn't descended upon her in the last minute, look at Lauren to make sure she was safe, sigh in resigned disgust at the choices she'd made in the last two hours, then look again to the road.

Forty minutes later, she navigated the sedan into the small gravel parking lot near another dilapidated neighborhood of another town. Bo parked next to where she'd stashed her rusted out Camaro near the trailhead, and rolled her shoulders in a vain attempt to loosen muscles that never seemed to ease. She shifted the car into neutral and set the parking brake but left the motor running.

A mild cramp seized her legs and she hissed, more at the reminder than the minor pain. She hadn't fed enough and now, with this added complication, she wasn't sure when she'd hunt again. She rotated in the driver's seat, trying to ease the pressure on her legs, but instead of turning toward the door, she burrowed a shoulder into the canvas seat as leaned closer to her captive.

Lauren was pale and her breathing was shallow, but she didn't look any worse than she had at the rave. Bo wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing.

She didn't know what it was that she did when she fed from people. There was no blood, so she wasn't some kind of vampire. It would sound ludicrous if she said the words out loud, but in the disquiet of her own mind, she knew she had to be some kind of paranormal freak. There was no other way to explain how she fed.

For what had to be the millionth time in her life, she considered the possibility that it was all in her head and that she was some kind of psychopath on top of being a murderer. Yet that couldn't be true - not all of it, anyway. She couldn't just will herself into sucking people dry without touching them the way she did.

And now she had done the impossible - or what she'd believed impossible before tonight. She had _stopped -_ mid-feed, while hungry. In ten years, that had never happened. All the times she'd fed before now, all the lives she'd taken, the nights she'd sobbed herself to sleep wracked by the horror and the guilt of something she didn't understand, only to discover - with this one woman - that she was capable of sparing a victim.

Lauren's head fell forward and her hair blocked Bo's view of her face, but it didn't matter.

She would never forget the face of the woman who'd made her stop.

Now that she wasn't as focused on driving - _on escaping,_ she thought - she pondered what had happened. For the first time in Bo's life, her victim was still alive. Unconscious, pale as fuck, and hanging on by a thread - but alive.

 _Alive._

How was this possible? What was different about this one time?

And on the tail end of that came the whisper of a small, desperate but hopeful prayer: could she do it again?

Could she stop being a murderer now?

Bo felt tears on her face but didn't wipe them away and took a breath to soothe herself. If she gave into the devastation she felt right now, she might never recover.

And now this woman had said that she knew what Bo was.

For years, Bo had searched to find out who and what she was. She hadn't voiced the question to another human being since that first night when she'd begged her parents for help. They'd called her a demon, confessed that they weren't her birth parents, and kicked her out into the cold.

Bo had left the small town where she'd grown up and searched out in the world wherever she thought to look. Wherever she'd ended up, she'd searched out libraries and bookstores and read every crazy theory published about countless serial killers over the last hundred years.

None of them had described what she little knew about herself, or answered any of the questions that kept her up shaking and terrified night after night. Why did she have to kill? And why did she kill the way she did?

What was she?

Bo shook her head, and wiped the tears and their tracks from her face. No time for that now. She wasn't in the clear, and these were all old questions that weren't going to give her any new answers tonight - not unless she could figure out how to revive this stranger. Now, she had to decide what she was going to do with Lauren.

Still, she wanted one more quiet moment to look at her.

Bo tried to remember the last time she'd been in a car with someone else. It had been years since she'd been near anyone that she'd come remotely close to calling a friend. Even though Lauren was out cold, she was still beautiful. The warm, cycled air of the car's heater wrapped Lauren's scent around Bo like a cocoon. Bo breathed it in, despite the low cramp that punished her for the effort, and wondered what it might be like to sleep with her - and if Lauren would be alive come morning.

Bo pushed that thought from her mind.

She saw goose bumps on Lauren's skin and realized the woman was probably freezing. Bo mentally kicked herself for not cranking the heat while they'd been on the road - and then worried again about what she was going to do to revive her. She didn't have any medical training or supplies. Taking Lauren to a hospital wasn't even a remote option - too many questions would be asked, and Bo would have to abandon Lauren in order to avoid the authorities, and she wouldn't get any answers that way. She'd have to nurse the woman back to health herself.

This was a new problem. She didn't know what exactly she _did_ to a person when she fed from them. If she didn't know how Lauren had been affected, how could she make Lauren better?

Bo looked at Lauren more closely, lingering over every hair and pore. Lauren was a beautiful woman, yes, but there was also a grace to her features. Her clothes weren't the latest fashion, no, but they were expensive and well made. Bo tried to picture this woman in the crack house of a refuge that had been Bo's home for the last couple of months. Bo's latest haunt was an abandoned house deep in the industrial district. Bo thought it looked like it had been converted into some sort of business the last time it had been used for anything. It reeked of chemicals and rot, but Bo could tell that no one had been there in years, which had made it perfect for her needs.

This woman - _Lauren,_ Bo corrected herself - would stand out like a queen in a garbage dump.

Bo knew she was wasting time. With only a couple more hours before first light, Bo had little time to make the drive under the cover of darkness back to her place in the city. It wasn't likely that there'd be anyone in her neighborhood to notice Bo dragging a body into the abandoned building she called home, but she didn't want to take any chances.

She let the car stall out since she didn't have a key and turned once again to face forward. With one last deep breath, she focused on the actions to be taken now instead of the thoughts to be addressed later.

Bo would take Lauren back to her place and somehow revive her. Once she had what she needed, Bo would have to decide what to do next. Lauren had seen her face and said she knew what Bo was, which meant that Bo couldn't let her go.

On the other hand, Bo wasn't sure that she could kill her.

XXX

 _ **TBC. As always, your comments and feedback would be much appreciated - and don't forget to hit me up on Twitter at virginiablk517. ~VB517**_


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

A rhythmic throbbing in her head pulled Lauren from the depths of unconsciousness and forced a whimper from her. She tried to take a slow breath to get some relief from the headache but inhaling turned into a racking cough that burned her lungs and throat. The pain in her head didn't ease, and she moaned, unable to think of anything beyond the misery of her condition.

"Easy."

Lauren heard the voice nearby and felt a cool touch on her neck. Even the slow elevation of her head made the throbbing worse, so she didn't dare open her eyes. She gasped, fighting the urge to cough again.

When she felt something against her lips, Lauren winced. Her lips felt cracked.

"It's just water, but drink it slowly."

The cool water was welcome, but still hurt her throat. She coughed again, choked and sputtered, and the flow stopped. She caught her breath, but was afraid she wouldn't get more water and was desperate for relief. Lauren moaned again.

The flow resumed and the burn in her throat eased. Lauren sipped slower this time, until she could finally take a breath without her chest seizing.

The effort exhausted her. She sensed that her head had been lowered, and then all was dark once more.

XXXXX

An unusual sound pulled Lauren out of the fog. Eyes still closed, she couldn't make out what the sound was - only that it was off somehow. It sounded like someone was sweeping…with a cello.

Solving the puzzle took all of her mental effort but she determined that they were separate sounds. The cello was unaccompanied, and sounded small and tinny. The sweeping was rhythmic, though sometimes it seemed closer and at other times further away.

The tinny cello faded to silence. The sweeping continued.

A man's voice, sedate and low, commented on the cello piece that had just ended. Lauren realized it was a radio announcer's voice, that the tinny cello sound had come through small radio speakers, and now she was confused.

She didn't have a radio.

Lauren opened her eyes, blinking against unwelcome grit.

The first thing she saw was an unfamiliar ceiling. This wasn't her room in the Light Fae compound. The exposed wooden beams were dark and dirty and covered in dusty cobwebs.

She frowned in confusion, and that brought the headache to her attention. It wasn't as bad as it had been (and when was it again that it had been worse?) but it still hurt enough to make her wince.

Lauren glanced around without turning her head, though it felt like her eyeballs were creaking.

Exposed lathe and plaster walls. Boarded up windows against the dark of night. Low lamp light. And if the angle of the walls and door was any indication, Lauren herself was flat on her back on a bed…on the floor?

The sweeping sounded nearby, but she didn't see anyone.

She rolled over onto her side, surprised that it took so much effort to move. Thirst hit her like a wall. There didn't seem to be any moisture in her mouth, which felt like dry sandpaper and tasted worse, and it hurt like hell to swallow.

 _What the fuck?_

Did she have the flu? She felt like she was dying. And where the hell was she?

An upended wooden crate sat next to the bed, with two plastic bottles of water on it.

Lauren felt like it took all of her strength, concentration and will to reach toward one of those bottles, but she only succeeded in upsetting the balance of the crate. One of the bottles tipped over, rolled off the edge and thumped on the floor.

She collapsed. The sweeping stopped.

A shadow filled the door, but Lauren could only look in that direction - she was too tired to lift her head.

"Shit," the shadow muttered, and Lauren realized it was a woman.

A dark form moved toward the bed until it became a recognizable human shape.

"Here," the woman said. "Let me help you with that."

In the low light, Lauren could make out pale skin, dark hair pulled back in a ponytail, and a tattered black t-shirt.

The woman looked familiar, but Lauren still felt fuzzy.

"Where am I?" Lauren asked.

The woman didn't answer.

Lauren closed her eyes.

XXXXX

When Lauren opened her eyes again, the room was brighter, but it seemed to her that only a few minutes had passed. She heard the same tinny radio - classical violins this time - and felt the whisper of unease. Where was she?

A glance around the room showed her she wasn't alone.

The woman she'd seen before sat on the floor, across from the side of the bed with her back against a wall. Her hair was down around her shoulders now, and her t-shirt was different.

She stared back at Lauren while Lauren tried once more to think through the fog in her head and figure out what was happening.

"How are you feeling?" The woman's voice was soft yet clear, but there was something in her tone that made Lauren's wonder - until her headache made itself known again.

She felt like shit. A quick self-analysis filled in more of the picture - she was exhausted, feverish, dehydrated and wasn't thinking clearly. The headache had eased to a low roar, but her body ached all over and her limbs felt leaden.

"Need glucose," Lauren mumbled her self-diagnosis. "And protein."

The woman stood, walked across the room.

"There's some chicken broth. It's been here a little while, but its probably still hot."

 _Chicken broth?_ Lauren's mouth watered, but as she watched the woman kneel next to the bed and fetch a covered thermos, her confusion returned. _Wasn't that just a water bottle?_

How long had she been here?

"How long have I been here?" Lauren's voice sounded to her own ears like more of a croak.

The mysterious woman didn't answer as she poured some of the soup into the cup-shaped thermos lid. Instead of handing it to Lauren, the woman reached out to lift Lauren's head, and Lauren sipped half of the cup's contents before stopping for a breath.

 _So weak._

She looked at her nurse again, and this close, even through the haze of her condition, Lauren noticed the dark circles beneath beautiful brown eyes. Who was this woman? If she was a threat, there wasn't a thing that Lauren could do right now to defend herself.

A memory pushed through the fog, and Lauren pulled away from the cup. The woman let Lauren fall back to the bed, and to Lauren's surprise, tucked the bedcovers more closely around her.

Lauren watched as the woman replace the lid and set the thermos next to the bed. Without saying a word, the woman walked back to her spot across the room and sat down. Recognition dawned on Lauren when they stared at each other once more.

"I know you," Lauren said, though her voice didn't project as strongly as she wanted. She still felt like she couldn't get enough air in her lungs.

The woman looked wary - perhaps fearful. Her brown eyes were wide. "You do?"

Lauren swallowed against her aching throat, and tried to prop herself up, though she only got as far as leaning on an elbow. That alone seemed to exhaust what little strength she had left. "You're Mel. The succubus from that club."

Lauren collapsed onto her back, eyes closed, and stopped fighting the pull to sleep.

XXXXX

 _ **TBC. Keep those reviews and tweets coming...they're fueling the fire. ~VB517**_


	6. Chapter 6

**_[Author's note: For those who've been wondering, here's the main variation so far. Bo never met Kenzi in the bar, and never took her back to the Crackshack. I'll leave it to your imagination for now to wonder how that changes Bo's timeline, but much will be revealed soon enough. Thank you for all the reviews and comments! It means so much to me that you're along for the ride._**

 ** _Hit me up on Twitter as well: at virginiablk517_**

 ** _Now, on with the story. ~VB517]_**

 **CHAPTER 6**

The first day was the worst.

Bo was terrified that Lauren could still die. As she drove back to the city, she checked several times for Lauren's pulse, holding her own breath as if preparing herself for the worst.

Streetlights were the only illumination in the industrial district when Bo drove her Camaro through the neighborhood. Bo saw nothing moving - no delivery trucks, security guards, or random pedestrians. She was grateful it was Sunday because most of the time, business hours in some of the warehouses started before first light.

Even so, she was cautious and slowed the car down to a crawl.

Six weeks ago, she'd driven through this neighborhood in the wee hours of morning, looking for an abandoned building where she could hide when she wasn't hustling or hunting. She could have slept in the car and lived on the street, but in the heart of winter that life was more of a pain in the ass than usual.

Bo had struck gold with this building. It was empty and seemed to have been abandoned for years. Its windows were still intact because they'd been boarded up inside and out. There was functional indoor plumbing, and to her amazement, the electricity was on since someone had failed to disconnect the power. It was a pit, but perfect for her needs.

She parked behind the building in a space she'd made between a dumpster and some plywood so that the car couldn't be seen from the street.

It wasn't the first time she'd carried a body carefully from plain sight - it wasn't even the hundredth - but it was the first time the body was still alive. The rusted-out padlock on the front door was just for show. Bo easily navigated the door, despite having Lauren's unconscious body thrown over one shoulder, and secured the door behind her against the wind.

Bo didn't like the idea of putting Lauren on the couch, so she carried her up the flight of stairs to the room where she herself slept. It was only slightly less dirty upstairs, but there was a queen-sized mattress and box spring on the floor in the middle of the room and Bo thought it would be more comfortable.

Lauren didn't move or make a sound and lay half on her side where Bo put her down. Bo stepped away, not wanting to be too close, but she could still hear Lauren's breathing and see that the paleness of Lauren's skin hadn't changed.

Bo didn't want to be in the same room as Lauren, but she couldn't bear to leave her alone. Once, she thought she heard Lauren stop breathing altogether. Bo tried calling her name. No response. Bo stepped closer, indecisive, but then sat down on the bed and put her hand on Lauren's leg, wondering if her touch would stir Lauren at all. Nothing. Finally, Bo gently shook her, but nothing changed until finally, Bo heard her breathing again.

She wondered if she'd imagined it.

Bo couldn't stand it. She wasn't one for sitting still, not if she could help it, but until she came up with a plan, there was nothing for her to do but stay here while her hunger grew. She stood up and took what little action she could.

She paced. Across the room, though the doors and into the bathroom and back again, she paced wondering what she would do if this woman died here.

And what she would do if she didn't.

When she grew tired of pacing, she went downstairs to make sure no one had followed her, even though she knew it was unlikely, but she was so far beyond her comfort zone that she couldn't help but check. Bo didn't spend a lot of time in this building. It was so important for her to have a place to hide that she didn't want to draw any attention to it by coming and going at all hours, but the truth was that it reminded her of how lonely her life was, and she hated that.

To compensate, Bo was always out driving or hustling, working whatever jobs she could get where they didn't ask questions or require a high school diploma, or where she didn't have to take off her clothes or blow creeps in alleyways. Most of the gigs were daily, and some of them were questionable when it came to legality, but it kept her in cover charge cash, gas, and food.

The cover charge cash was for hunting, and the food was self-explanatory. The gas let her take long drives when she could outside the city on winding country roads that reminded her of her small-town childhood.

She didn't get to do that very often.

Downstairs, Bo peeked again through the boards nailed to one window. Nothing moved outside and a fine dusting of snow had fallen on the ground in the last hour. She thought it might stick.

She frowned. Snow meant she couldn't take the car out again for a while. The tracks would lead to questions and attention and she wanted neither. She was grateful, though, that she wasn't out in the cold.

Cold.

She needed to get Lauren warmed up. Making her comfortable wasn't going to do anything. Bo needed to treat her like she was sick - like she had the flu or something. Get her warm. Get some fluids in her.

Maybe that would help. And then she could get some fucking answers.

X-X-X-X-X

The sheets were mostly clean. Bo had stolen them last week, and only slept on them twice. Both times, she'd been alone. She never brought marks to where she crashed - well, not anymore - but she pushed that memory aside and focused on the task at hand.

She'd left Lauren's coat on her body and half-covered her with the patchwork quilt that topped the bed. Bo had found it at a homeless shelter and it had reminded her of home - of what used to be home - so she'd traded some hard earned cash for it. Lauren still looked pale and cold. Bo looked around, but she knew there wasn't anything in the building that would act as an additional blanket.

Inspiration struck and she bolted from the room. Five minutes later, she returned with the sleeping bag she kept in her trunk. Since she often lived out of her car, she'd built up a small arsenal over time, including this older down sleeping bag designed for backpacking in harsh conditions.

It smelled like oil and gasoline, so she gave it a good shake. The action kicked up a layer of dirt and dust in the room, and she quickly blocked Lauren from most of it. Bo frowned. This place was filthy. She hadn't really noticed it before. She had only been concerned with her own safety, with hiding, but now that Lauren was here, she saw the whole room through new eyes.

With slow, gentle hands, Bo removed Lauren's boots and then eased her inert body under the covers. Bo sandwiched the sleeping bag between the sheet and quilt as an added layer of insulation and pulled it all up to Lauren's chin. Once she'd secured the covers, she looked again at Lauren's face.

Even pale and unmoving, Lauren was beautiful enough to drive thought from Bo's mind. Bo still wanted her, felt the ache move through her own body again, but she clenched her eyes shut and suppressed the urge. She stood and stepped away from the bed, away from the temptation of Lauren's lips and skin.

Powerless, she stared until she couldn't stand it anymore, and went back to pacing.

XX-XX-XX-XX-XX

Bo was in the bathroom changing clothes when she heard the first moan. She tore her shirt in her haste to cover herself as she ran from the bathroom through the dilapidated French doors to the bedroom.

Lauren was drenched in sweat, her eyes closed as she moaned. As Bo watched, Lauren was overcome with deep, body shaking coughs that sounded terrible. Now she not only looked like she was dying, she sounded like it, too.

Without thinking of the possible danger of being so close to Lauren again, Bo rushed to the bed.

"Easy," Bo said, her voice cracking. What if this woman recognized her as a threat right away? What if she screamed?

What if she actually didn't know anything at all about what Bo was and this was all for nothing?

Lauren moaned again, and it faded to a whimper. She sounded like she was in agony.

Bo grabbed the bottle of water she'd left nearby and twisted off the cap. She raised Lauren's head and held the bottle to her lips. "It's just water, but drink it slowly."

Bo held Lauren steady, even as she coughed and sputtered water all over herself. When Lauren calmed, Bo helped her drink more of the water until finally Lauren stopped. Lauren whimpered again when Bo laid her head down.

Bo felt guilt wash over her. Yes, she needed answers, but she had done this to Lauren. Somehow, she had to make her better. Even if she had no idea what would happen next.

So now what should she do?

Bo looked around the room. For a moment, she heard her mother's voice telling her to stop lazing about and get busy cleaning. She sighed.

She needed to find a broom.

X-X-X-X-X

Bo started by cleaning around the bed. She'd found a professional-grade push broom in the basement - an area she hadn't even explored before today - but the broom was missing whole rows of bristles. Still, she had to start with something, and she didn't want to leave the house to find something better.

Bo wasn't sure what she'd do if she left and came back to find Lauren dead.

A slowly expanding stain of cleanliness spread out from the bed. First, she removed the food and beverage containers that hadn't yet made it into the trash downstairs. Then, she got rid of the empty boxes and random packing materials left by long-gone tenants. Finally, she swept the floors clear of dust, dirt and debris.

She had wanted to sweep away the cobwebs on the ceiling, but was afraid they'd fall on the bed.

Another glance at the floors had Bo wondering if she could find a bucket and some rags.

Bo had never cleaned much for herself since she was always focused on whatever hustle was keeping her flush at the moment, but for this woman, she would make this dark, empty space somehow better.

And as the cramps grew stronger, cleaning kept Bo's mind off her growing need to feed again.

XX-XX-XX-XX-XX

Over the next few days, the cycle continued. Bo paced whenever she couldn't sit still, and tried to stave off the need to feed on the one person who could answer her lifelong questions. She knew that she'd have to find another job - not showing up meant she wouldn't be welcome to return - but she couldn't very well leave Lauren alone. On the one hand, she might die, but on the other, she might wake up and leave.

Bo couldn't let her do that. Not yet - and maybe, not ever.

Meanwhile, Lauren regained consciousness briefly more than once, consumed whatever fluids Bo had on hand, and then fell back into oblivion. Bo figured it was Lauren's body's way of healing but she felt like she herself was running out of time.

Then Lauren woke up long enough to notice where she was - and who she was with - before passing out again.

 _"You're Mel. The succubus from that club."_

Bo knew it wasn't hunger that caused an icy feeling in her veins. She'd forgotten that she'd given that name to Lauren. Though she hadn't seen her high school best friend in over a decade, she still missed her and once in a while, used that name as an alias. Was it hearing Mel's name that gave her goose bumps?

Or was it the foreign and barely known word Lauren had spoken?

 _Succubus._

Lauren was once again asleep, perhaps unaware of the tsunami she'd left in her wake.

Bo had read that word once. Years ago, while in a library searching for answers, she'd paused in her serial killer research and ventured into the paranormal. She knew it was madness - none of that stuff was real - but some part of her wondered if there might be some sort of clue in the study of things that were impossible.

Hidden inside an old tome published half a century earlier were illustrations and descriptions of all kinds of creatures, but only one was female and relied on sex for survival - though there had been nothing in the book about pulsing or feeding or a criminally high body count.

 _Succubus._

No. That was insane. Things like that - _creatures_ like that - didn't really exist. That couldn't possibly be true.

Could it?

Bo felt like the few tendrils of sanity she had left were unraveling. She was barely hanging on right now, and if this woman didn't have real answers, Bo didn't think she could continue as she had been. Moving from place to place, back and forth across the country. Hustling under-the-table cash jobs just to stay alive. Hunting as far away from where she slept as she could, trying to cover up her trail so she didn't end up arrested or worse. Randomly screwing people in dark corners, disgusting motels, and in the backseats of cheap, rundown cars. Not forming any connections or ties with anyone.

No friends. No family. No comfort.

This was no way to live.

Yet, she couldn't consider the alternative either. That was no longer a viable option. For many years, she'd often thought about taking her own life, and ending the cycle of eat-sleep-fuck-kill. When the pain, guilt, isolation and despair got to be too much, she'd often wondered why she didn't just end it all.

Until the one time she'd tried.

Five years ago, while holed up in an empty vacation house during the winter off-season, she'd run a hot bath, drank half a bottle of scotch to get up her nerve, and opened her veins, relieved that it would all soon be over.

Bo woke up three days later, shivering with cold and starvation, horrified to find herself in a pool of icy water full of her own congealed blood and covered with flies. She'd had nightmares for months after.

She never tried again.

Bo sighed as she watched Lauren sleep. She knew better than to sit up pondering the nature of the universe at this hour. It always ended the same way - with her huddled in the center of her bed, sobbing, wondering why in hell she kept trying. And it was hell - this dark, twisted horror of a life that she never would have imagined in a million years back when she was in the small corner of the world that she still thought of as home.

There wasn't much chance of her sobbing in her bed tonight. Someone was in it.

 _Succubus._

Bo didn't want to believe it. She _couldn't_ believe it, yet even as she denied it, one memory insinuated itself to the forefront of her mind.

After the one time she'd tried to kill herself, she'd found a nearby house on the beach where four women had been sharing a weekend vacation trip away from their families. Bo had seduced and fed on them all.

When she was finished, she'd discovered that all of the wounds on her arms had disappeared.

XX-XX-XX-XX-XX

 ** _TBC. Please share your comments and reviews! They always inspire me to continue writing. —VB517_**


	7. Chapter 7

**_[ Author's Note: Much like Bo, you're about to get some answers. Please let me know in the reviews and on Twitter (at virginiablk517) what you think of this chapter. I'm curious to know where you think the story's going._**

 ** _In other news: I've got a story in Sapphire Books' latest anthology! It's coming in April, with preorders available soon. "Each unique story will transport you through twisted plots of brazen woman loving woman romance amidst an explosion of actors, cosplayers, con-goers, demons, do-gooders, filmmakers, superheroes, vampires and more!" I'll keep you posted on details._**

 ** _Now, on with the story. ~VB517]_**

 **CHAPTER 7**

Bo crushed her arms against her body, inhaling through her nose and exhaling out her mouth. She sat on the floor in a corner, as far away from the bed as she could get yet still remain in the room.

 _It'll pass,_ she thought as she rocked forward and back. _Breathe. It'll pass._

The cramps were getting worse. The energy she'd fed on days before hadn't been nearly enough, and was now long depleted. She needed to hunt before she came apart, before the pain drove her to forget her usual precautions.

She had to get out of this room, but she couldn't bear to take one step toward the door. Bo was certain she was losing her mind. She couldn't leave Lauren alone, but she couldn't risk losing control and feeding from her either - not if she wanted answers. This time, she'd definitely kill her, since she had no idea how she'd stopped the first time.

All she had the strength to do was sit, and force herself not to move when the cramps eased. One step in the wrong direction, and she'd be all over Lauren, tasting her skin, parting those sweet lips and -

Bo bit her tongue to keep from screaming.

If she killed Lauren, then she'd have to dispose of the body, pack up and leave again. She blinked away tears of pain and frustration. Bo didn't want to start all over. To leave and find another town, find another shitty place to crash, more hustling, more hunting, finding the ways to cover her tracks...

She didn't know how much longer she could keep going like this. And Lauren _had_ to know something. When Bo wasn't praying for the strength to stay in one place, she was praying that Lauren wasn't batshit crazy, that the one insane word she'd spoken hadn't been some snarky hipster critique of Bo's clothes.

Another cramp hit her deep in her abdomen and she whimpered through her tears.

As Bo's condition deteriorated, Lauren's improved. Bo had seen movement - a twitch of Lauren's hands, a shift of her legs - and hoped that she was nearing consciousness. Bo didn't want to call out to Lauren for fear that she'd be tempted to move closer, so she waited, and prayed, and shouted inside her head for Lauren to wake up.

Finally, with a deep breath and loud exhale, Lauren opened her eyes.

Bo sat up straighter.

She watched Lauren stare at the ceiling and then look around the room. With a low grunt, Lauren rolled her body to one side and pushed herself up. Then she saw Bo and froze.

Another cramp hit along Bo's spine and she tried to cover a wince, but Lauren noticed. They stared at each other.

Bo wasn't sure where to start, and Lauren wasn't saying anything. It was a long silence, and Bo wasn't sure which way it would go.

Lauren glanced at the door. Bo wondered if she was going to try to leave, but that couldn't happen. Not yet. Bo stood up, trying to hide how shaky her legs were, and leaned back against the wall.

Lauren looked her up and down. Bo felt like her measure had just been taken. She wondered what Lauren thought of what she'd seen.

"Where am I?" Lauren's voice was stronger than before, but strained. "What is this place?"

Bo thought Lauren might lead with a different question.

"It's my-" _What the hell do I call this rathole?_ "It's mine."

Bo watched Lauren assess the room again. She seemed to stare at the metal drum in the corner for a long minute but then looked back at Bo.

"Why am I here?"

Bo wasn't sure she could jump right into that. She wanted answers, but she needed to make sure this woman wasn't bonkers first.

"I wanted to make sure you were okay." Bo knew that sounded lame. Hell, it felt lame to say it, but she was hanging on by her fingernails here. What else could she say?

Lauren squinted at the windows. It was late afternoon, but the light that managed to get through the dirty glass and past both sets of boards was weak and gray.

"Are we near the club?"

Bo swallowed against a lump in her dry throat. "No," she answered before she could stop herself.

"Where are we, then?"

Bo couldn't think of an answer. She watched as Lauren pushed the covers from her legs and managed to get one foot on the floor. Lauren stared at her socked feet.

"Where are my boots?"

Bo cleared her throat and gestured towards the end of the bed, though Lauren didn't see her pointing. "Right there, but..." She couldn't bring herself to say the words just yet, but they were still true.

Lauren caught the word. "But what?"

Bo took a step towards the door. "I can't let you leave." _Not yet._

"What?" Lauren's frown was fierce. "What the fuck are you talking about?"

A cramp stole Bo's next words. She leaned against the frame of the French doors, trying to keep one eye on Lauren despite the pain.

Lauren muttered to herself. "Jesus Christ. One time. Once!" She threw the covers away from her in disgust. "The one time I go out in over a year and I get fucking kidnapped."

She jerked her head up again. "Is this a kidnapping? Are you trying to ransom me?" She frowned. "They won't pay a dime."

 _Who is they?_

Lauren shifted her weight to stand, but her strength wasn't in it. She moaned and reached for her head, and then after a moment rested her hands on her knees. "Well, I wondered what a succubus feed was like. Now I know."

The sound of that word again made Bo's skin crawl.

"Why am I here, Mel?"

Bo didn't know what expression she wore on her face, but Lauren made a scoffing sound in response.

"That's not even your name, is it?"

The pain of the cramps was intense, but Lauren's disdain was just as painful. Bo wasn't sure how to get the upper hand, and she needed one if she was going to get through this without something terrible happening.

"No," she admitted, and then surprised herself. "It's Bo."

"Bo."

Again Lauren measured her.

"You've got to be new to the colony. Nobody local would pull something this stupid unless-" Her eyes grew wide and she opened her mouth in shock. "Is your clan invading the colony?"

 _What the actual fuck is she talking about?_

Bo shook her head. "Klan? Like those sheet-wearing racists? No!"

Lauren frowned. "No, your clan. Your people."

This woman actually thought she was making sense. Maybe she was bonkers.

"I don't have any people." Bo swallowed back the old sadness. "I don't have a clan. I'm not Scottish."

Now, Lauren frowned in confusion. "Scottish? No." She shook her head and started again. "When you came to the colony, did you announce your arrival? Sign in at the Dal?"

"I didn't tell anyone when I got here," Bo said, wondering when she was going to get around to asking her own questions. This woman was supposed to be recovering - and after days of being unconscious or mumbling gibberish, now she was non-stop with the inquisition.

"Then how is this not some sort of attack? The Ash might be lenient, but the Morrigan-"

Bo listened to Lauren speak words that mostly made sense when taken individually but not altogether. She didn't want to have to admit that she had no idea what this woman was talking about, but it didn't matter. The time had come for some answers.

"What do you know about -" _what's the plural of - oh fuck it._ "About being a su-succubus?" She stuttered on the word. Speaking it out loud gave it power, and it shook Bo to the bone.

Lauren leaned back. She shifted her other foot to the floor, and now Bo could smell the faint scent of fear. It made her hunger flare for a few seconds, and she bit back the urge once more.

"Not much," Lauren said. "You feed on sexual energy, and the life force - the chi - of your partners."

Partners. As if Bo's victims had a choice. Or could even speak up for themselves.

"I've never met a succubus before, " Lauren continued. "But I'd read about thralls. When you pulsed me in the club-" She appeared to remember something. "What happened to my friends?"

Bo didn't know and said so.

Lauren scrambled weakly to reach her coat and feel its pockets. "My phone? My ID?"

Each question felt like a slap to Bo. "I left them at the club. I didn't want anyone to track you."

Lauren made a disapproving sound. "Yeah, good luck with that."

Bo didn't like the sound of that at all, and pushed away from the wall.

Lauren sat up straighter, fear in her eyes. She looked again at the metal drum, then back at Bo, and then sighed in apparent resignation.

"What do you really want from me?"

Bo stood up as straight as she could manage. "I want you to tell me what kind of freak I am."

XX-XX-XX-XX-XX

 _Dear gods._

Her head was still foggy but Lauren's fever had broken. Her mouth tasted terrible and she needed a shower. She felt weak and listless, but finally well enough to complain, which under normal circumstances would have been a good sign.

These were not normal circumstances.

Lauren didn't know what to make of the woman tucked into the shadows like a wounded animal. Her skin was pale and drawn back, her brow furrowed in pain. There was no sign of the sexy and confident woman that had attracted Lauren at the rave. It was obvious that this woman needed to feed.

Lauren wondered why she hadn't.

That wasn't even the most urgent of Lauren's endless questions. Besides wondering where the hell she was and what this woman wanted with her, she _really_ wanted to know what the large metal industrial drum was for. It was the only thing in the room besides the bed and an upturned crate for a nightstand.

There was a large bottle of lighter fluid next to the drum, and Lauren had already connected the dots. It was large enough for a full-grown human male to fit inside, and while it wouldn't get rid of bone matter, it would certainly do for the disposal of the rest of a human body. That didn't bode well for Lauren's future, and made it very clear to Lauren that her current predicament was dangerous.

This woman was dangerous.

And now she was saying she didn't know what a succubus was.

 _How can she not know?_

Was it possible that this woman had no idea what she was and had managed to survive for years undetected?

Lauren tried to imagine what that might be like - to live for years with uber-human abilities and appetites but not know where they'd come from. She tried to convince herself that it wasn't possible, but Bo was looking at her as if Bo's life depended on whatever Lauren said next.

Which meant that Bo didn't know anything.

Lauren spoke as if the conversation had started over. "You're not a freak, Bo. You're a succubus." She took a deep breath. "It's rare, but it's not uncommon."

Bo shook as she spoke. "Not uncommon!"

"Not at all. In fact-"

"Not uncommon to suck the life from people?" Her anger was a like a physical thing in the room, and Lauren was too weak and tired to rally her own temper to fight back.

"Well, a girl's gotta eat." _Right, Lewis. Go for the gallows humor. Idiot._

Lauren heard the click in Bo's jaw when it fell open. "Are you fucking kidding me?" She took a step towards Lauren, spitting her words out as if she were throwing weapons instead. "I can't help it. It's a sickness or something - I don't how to make it stop. I don't know what's wrong with me."

"There's nothing wrong with you."

Bo made a rude noise. "Right. I'm a homicidal freak with a body count. Everything is wrong with that."

"You're not a freak," Lauren said with a wry, tired laugh, but the look on Bo's face told her that had been the wrong choice.

"I am." Bo glanced at her feet and took a step back. "You don't know anything about me. I've killed people." The anger seemed to fall away from her. "So many people."

Lauren's curiosity got the better of her. "Do you always kill when you feed?"

Bo didn't look her in the eye when she spoke. "I don't know how to stop. I want to, but I can't."

Lauren found that interesting, since she herself wasn't dead.

"I'm some kind of demon, I think," Bo said. "I don't know how it works."

"You're not a demon, Bo." Lauren sighed. "You're Fae."

XX-XX-XX-XX-XX

She wouldn't stop talking. For days, Bo had wanted nothing more than for Lauren to wake up and talk, and now Bo couldn't shut her up no matter how much she wanted to.

Lauren was explaining something about genomes and different Fae species and their powers and a whole bunch of biology stuff that Bo could give a flying fuck about and just hearing it all made her want to throw up. That's not what she wanted to know.

Lauren was some kind of genius scientist, but Bo didn't care. She didn't believe a word of it - it was all bullshit, except...except maybe Lauren knew the answer that Bo in her heart of hearts valued most.

More than Bo wanted to know what she was - or _who_ she was - she wanted to know this one thing.

"Can you fix it?"

That shut Lauren up for a moment.

"Fix it?"

"Yeah." Another cramp seized Bo's body, and she clenched her muscles against the pain, but met Lauren's direct look.

Lauren's voice was quiet, but clear. "Bo, there's nothing wrong with you."

Bo dropped her hands and clenched them into fists at her sides. "Look at me! I'm standing here trying not to kill you. I need to know if I can stop - being - this, this _thing_." A sob broke free, and she blinked the tears back. "I don't want to kill anyone anymore, do you understand?"

"Listen to me, Bo." Lauren sounded convincing, but Bo didn't care. "You can learn to control it - to feed but not kill. If you'd been raised by a clan, they'd have taught you-"

Bo growled in frustration "So not only am I some kind of paranormal freak, but I was left to rot by freaks who could have taught me not to be a serial killer?" _Of course._ Of course she'd been abandoned by her real parents, and left with -

She didn't want to think about that. About the family she'd left behind. The family that had thrown her out because of what she was. Her tears fell freely now.

Had they all known that she'd grow up to be a monster?

"Bo, please-" Lauren stood up.

"Stay away from me," Bo warned.

"I can help you." Lauren stepped towards her.

"Stay away," Bo yelled. Lauren was too close, and the smell of her made something inside Bo snap.

"I can help you if you'll just-"

Bo screamed and ran from the room.

XX-XX-XX-XX-XX

Lauren heard the sound of boots on stairs, followed by a slamming door. Wherever Bo had gone, she'd forgotten to do anything to restrain her captive.

 _Well, I guess you're free now,_ Lauren thought.

She wanted to go back to bed, but that wasn't an option. It was time to make her escape, to figure out where she was and how the hell she could get back to where she belonged, but she was hoping that Bo would come back. There were quite a few questions that needed answering, but Lauren guessed that they'd have to wait.

Lauren retrieved her boots, and walked into the unknown.

After drinking what felt like a half gallon of water and using the sub-standard facilities in the dilapidated bathroom, she ventured carefully downstairs.

What she found left her standing in mute shock.

The room where she'd been staying had been rundown but clean. The quilt on the bed that she'd noticed while she'd put on her boots had seemed homey and loved.

The rest of the house was a filthy sty of detritus and years of grease, dirt and mold. Old broken furniture was propped up against walls and in corners, scrap metal and wood lay where they'd fallen a million years ago, and Lauren was sure she'd seen something small and gray moving in a corner when she'd walked into the room.

The only human touches were an old red couch, and a chair with a trunk for a table. All in all, it was the saddest place Lauren had ever seen and she'd been to a lot of sad places in her life.

And Bo lived here.

For a moment, Lauren was touched by how much fortitude it must take for Bo to move through this world, not knowing what she was and not having anyone to explain it.

Then Lauren realized the danger Bo represented, and what might happen if the wrong people found out about her.

She needed to find Bo before those other people did. But first, she needed backup.

Lauren headed for the door. When she stepped outside and looked around, she spotted a familiar skyline in the distance, and realized the house was near an overpass she knew well but had never seen from this angle. She was a lot closer to home than she'd thought.

In minutes, she'd scouted the nearby buildings and spotted an office with its lights on. Still weak from her ordeal, she picked her steps carefully in the snow and walked toward its sanctuary.

A rough looking middle-aged man sat behind a desk covered with paperwork, and didn't look pleased at the interruption but wasn't rude about it. "Help you?"

"I hope so," Lauren replied with a wan smile. "May I borrow your phone?"

XX-XX-XX-XX-XX

Reveling in the feeling of being clean and freshly showered, Lauren dressed as quickly as she could manage considering her persistent fatigue. She wanted to camp out on her couch for a day or six, but she had to meet with the elders as soon as possible. No matter how she felt, she always presented a confident, capable exterior to the elders and today would be no exception. They were tolerant, but she was certain that any show of weakness on her part would affect her standing. She couldn't let that happen - especially not now.

In less than five minutes, she donned a black dress shirt and a black suit, then slipped her feet into a pair of black boots. With the addition of silver earrings, her outfit was complete.

The necklace she wore was never removed.

Lauren picked up a hand towel from her bathroom counter and dried a missed wet spot behind her ear as she looked at her reflection in the large mirror above her bedroom chest of drawers. She still felt terrible, but much better now that she'd cleaned the last few days from her skin. Lauren wanted to take the time to contemplate a plan, but she didn't have time. Now that she was home, things would move quickly.

She was halfway down the stairs to her living room when she realized she wasn't alone.

"Lauren!" Dyson boomed. "Where have you been?"

Lauren sighed. Things were moving even faster than planned. She did not want to have this conversation right now.

"Later, Dyson." She walked toward the door, knowing he would follow.

"Not later. Now," he growled.

Lauren thought he was always growling.

"Yes, later." Lauren cleared the door to her living room, and headed for the outer door that led to the courtyard in the center of the Light Fae compound.

Dyson caught up to her as her fingers touched the doorknob and grabbed her arm.

"Damn it, Lauren. Where were you?"

She turned her head, her fatigue shortening her patience. "Let me go."

He was angry. She could see it all over his face, and feel it in his strong grip, but as she looked in his dark blue eyes, she saw that his anger was rooted in fear. His beard was longer than usual, his hair unkempt, his clothes wrinkled from over-wear. Still, she didn't have time right now to explain things to him.

"Now, Dyson."

He released her. "Please, Lauren." He spoke softer this time. "I've been looking for you for days. I thought you might be dead - or worse."

"Dyson-"

"It's my job to look out for you, Lauren." His frown deepened.

She sighed, and her words turned soft as well. "I know. I'm sorry you were worried - this was outside of my control." She opened the door, and walked through it, her stride lengthening as she walked across the courtyard toward the council chambers. Dyson easily kept pace beside her. "I have to talk to the elders first, but then I'll tell you everything." Or at least everything she knew.

"Fine." He didn't sound happy. "At least tell me you're ok. You smell - different."

From anyone else, that would have been an insult but from Dyson it was a simple truth.

"I'm tired." _And fucking famished, but I don't have time for that yet._ "And the smell is part of the story." She changed direction when they reached a covered outdoor path that led to the library. "I don't know how long we'll be in session, so if you could do me a favor and ping Kenzi, I'd appreciate it."

"Kenzi?"

"Yeah." Lauren slowed as she drew closer to the ornately carved wooden doors of the council room. "Tell her I need a new phone - and it doesn't have to be the latest fancy gadget, either. Mine was -" She sighed. "Lost."

"I know. In fact, I-"

Lauren opened the door and gave him one last look. "Not now, Dyson. I promise. The minute I'm out of here, you'll get the whole story. Preferably over steaks."

He nodded, dissatisfied but resigned.

Lauren closed the door behind her, and assessed the room.

"Well, it's about fucking time." Evony Fleurette de Marquise, Morrigan of the Dark Fae, sat in her chair, her elegant legs crossed as she studied her blood red nails. She was annoyed, but to Lauren, Evony was always annoyed. "Why call us for an immediate emergency session if you weren't even ready to meet?"

"I got here as quickly as I could," Lauren said. She sat down in her usual chair, an ancient oak monstrosity that had been reserved for her for the last five years.

She looked around the room, drawing the attention of the eight Fae present - four Light, four Dark. Counting Lauren, the sole human representative, there were nine voting members on the Elders Council.

"Wise and esteemed Elders," she said, and took a deep breath as she looked directly at the elder across from her, trying to convey to him in particular the severity of the meeting's topic. Fitzpatrick McCorrigan was the Ash of the Light Fae. "We have a situation."

XX-XX-XX-XX-XX

 ** _TBC. Let me know what you think! ~VB517_**


	8. Chapter 8

_**Author's Note:** F_ _aithful readers, here is a reward for your patience! Things will move quickly in this chapter as we get closer to the endgame._ ** _I swear there's #Doccubus coming_** _, but the last of the hard stuff has to be addressed first._

 _There are only a few more chapters left before our inevitable conclusion. In addition, here's a thought exercise: since the Bo in this story didn't meet Kenzi that night in the hotel (S1E01), then Kenzi didn't eventually talk her into being a PI of the paranormal - which means a whole list of "Fae of the Week" challenges won't happen. You may want to ponder how the timeline changes as a result._

 _For now, on with the story…_

 _~VB517 (at virginiablk517 on Twitter)_

 **CHAPTER 8**

 _Run._

Bo needed to get away. Away from Lauren and her bullshit, away from the temptation her body offered, away from Bo's own fucking life.

Outside, the snow had thickened, inches of it spread like icing over everything. It made her dingy neighborhood look less dangerous, less desolate, but she didn't care. The last of her self-preservation reminded her that snow meant she couldn't take the car, so Bo escaped on foot. Running away from Lauren.

Running toward possible victims.

The hunger was taking over though she was trying to resist it. Bo reverted back to the woman she'd been so many years ago. Back then, she had lived from moment to moment, driven by the need to survive whether that meant the next meal or the next feed.

She saw no one on the street as she hurried along, sticking to the late afternoon shadows as she put some distance between her and where she'd left Lauren.

Most of the rules she'd made for herself had been left behind. _Dress to blend in._ She'd left the house wearing old jeans and a torn t-shirt. Bo shivered, but not from the cold. _Always hunt at night._ There was still daylight left, but she couldn't wait until dark. _Never hunt near where you sleep._ Since she couldn't take the car, she was limited to the area nearby unless she took a bus or train out of town, but she didn't have time to plan a hunting trip. She hurt too much.

She was going to lose her ability to think clearly, and soon.

"Ain't you cold, girlie?"

Bo turned her head towards a voice that sounded chipper...and drunk.

Tucked into a narrow alley between two buildings, an older Asian man sat on a rusted metal crate. He was bundled in poorly fitting olive-colored coats, and his worn out work boots were muddy and untied. He smiled at her, though his eyes didn't quite focus on her face, and then took a big swig from a pint-sized bottle in his hand. Ice-cold wind gusted along the street between the buildings, and he seemed to forget about her as he crawled into a dirty, threadbare tent tucked into the alley.

Bo glanced up and down the street, looking for any other people nearby.

She saw no one.

It had been years since she'd had to do this, but she didn't give herself the time to second-guess. This might be her last chance before things got really messy, and getting messy might mean getting caught.

She joined him in the tent, ignoring his drunken laughter in surprise at her appearance. Bo kicked off a boot and stripped a leg out of her jeans. She shoved him onto his back, ripped open his pants as his laughter turned nervous, took him in hand and pulsed him until he was hard enough to mount. The expended energy tunneled her vision and nearly made her pass out.

She lifted her naked leg over his body and straddled him. He groaned, and Bo slammed herself onto him, raising herself and repeating the motion, gaining strength with each forceful thrust until finally she leaned forward, close enough to kiss but feeding instead.

The pain eased. She fed until he was spent, until he was drained, until he was gone.

XX-XX-XX

In the thousand years that he'd walked the earth, Dyson had seen more than he could ever share with anyone, and it took a lot to rattle him. For the last century, he had served the Ash as a lieutenant of the Light, working to protect the one rule of the Fae. It was their only rule: never reveal their existence to humans.

Dyson moved through the human world as a police detective. Whenever there was a risk of exposing the Fae to humans, Dyson stepped in to do whatever was necessary to keep their secret.

For the last five years, Dyson had held an additional position - protector of the human doctor, Lauren Lewis.

It had been a maddening job at first. Lauren wasn't a typical human and had no fear of the Fae. Not even Underfae - Fae who didn't have human features and couldn't mingle in non-Fae society without drawing attention - could shake Lauren's composure. She was intelligent, persistent, hard-working and driven to bring the Fae into the 21st century.

He'd begrudgingly grown to respect her. Over time, he'd come to admire her. Lately, he'd begun to think of her as a friend - a stubborn and contrary yet much-valued friend.

Four days ago, Lauren had disappeared. Her disappearance scared him like nothing had in a very long time.

Lauren had made some technological breakthrough the week before that Dyson hadn't understood, but he could see that she'd been elated. One of Lauren's lab technicians had suggested that they go out for drinks to celebrate, but not at the mostly sedate Dal Riata. Instead, they were planning to go to some rave an hour's drive away.

While Lauren tended to avoid such things, she'd decided this time to do something different. It was a celebration, she'd said, and had reassured Dyson several times that she'd be fine.

Instead, Dyson had received a frantic call from Sheila at 4am, screaming that the local cops had come to break up the rave, and that she couldn't find Lauren anywhere. Sheila had said that they'd searched high and low, and there was no sign of her - and Lauren wasn't responding to calls or texts, which was out of the ordinary. Dyson's friend and police partner Hale Santiago had often joked that you could set your watch by Lauren's response times. Something was wrong.

By the time Dyson had arrived, the local police had cleared out the area. A flash of his badge and a cover story that he was searching for a local drug dealer gave him access to the scene.

Dyson was a wolf shifter - a Fae who could shift at will in seconds from human to wolf. One of his innate abilities was an advanced sense of smell. He had tracked Lauren's scent to a dark and deserted corner deep in the bowels of the warehouse, where he'd found Lauren's destroyed phone and abandoned wallet.

Lauren's wasn't the only scent he'd sensed.

The co-mingled scents had led him outside, where they'd disappeared. He concluded that they must have left together by car.

Dyson and Hale had worked at all hours to try to find where Lauren had gone, sifting through police records in the vicinity until they'd tracked down a report of a stolen car that same night. It was a thin lead but after two days of work, it was all they had, so they'd followed it until they'd discovered that the car had been abandoned in another nearby town.

That led to the discovery that another car, an older model yellow Camaro, had been seen leaving the same area within hours of the stolen car report. It was still not much to go on, but they'd been working that angle together for another two days until Dyson left Hale in order to follow a new development in the case - Lauren's reappearance.

Today, Lauren had strolled into the Light Fae compound as if returning from a long walk, and though she had looked like hell, she seemed fine otherwise. Still, he was pissed that she hadn't told him a single word about where she'd been.

Now, he'd spent the better part of an hour pacing outside the door to the library, waiting for the council meeting to end. He knew they'd be awhile, but he didn't know what else to do. He'd seen the look on Lauren's face. Whatever was happening, it was big.

He felt a vibration in his jacket pocket and reached inside to pull out his phone. The small screen displayed a familiar smiling brown face.

"Hey, brother," he said. Hale was another Fae, and they'd served together for a long time.

" _Man, I struck gold."_ Hale sounded eager. _"The plates on the car turned out to be a dead end, but I've got a lead on where it might be. We've got an area to search."_ He let out a little laugh. _"I didn't put the beat cops on it. Figured you'd want to do it yourself."_

Dyson stared at the library doors as if he could see inside. If he wasn't going to get answers here, then he may as well see what he could find out himself.

"Tell me what you've got," Dyson said into the phone as he turned his back on the library and walked down the hall.

XX-XX-XX

Bo had come to her senses after the homeless man's death. No longer driven to the edge of whatever ledge held what was left of her sanity, still hungry but satisfied enough to at least think, she took a good long look at where she had ended up.

The tent was disgusting, and Bo didn't want to look too closely at its contents. She saw that an old habit had made an appearance - remaining half dressed in case she had to escape in a hurry. One boot still on, her jeans shoved down to half of one leg, the rest of her still clothed - it reminded her of the bad years, when she had scrounged on the streets for scraps of food and clothes, when she'd slept huddled up with other street kids, running every time she left a dead body in her wake.

Bo looked down at the dead man. His shirt had been pushed up his chest, and she saw scars allover his body. At first glance they looked like pock marks, but then she realized they were burns, small but each different. She looked at his clothes, his tattooed hands, everywhere but his face, and finally, it clicked. He was a veteran. These were shrapnel wounds.

Bo bit back a scream. This man, this poor man had served in the military, had been wounded yet had survived so much only to die beneath her in this filthy tent.

She started crying, the sobs shaking her body as she tried not to make any noise.

XX-XX-XX

Lauren's description of a new succubus with no idea she was Fae was met with subdued shock from the council of Fae elders. The silence stretched so long that Lauren began to count the oscillations of the pendulum in the library's grandfather clock.

The possibility of Bo's existence was unheard of - a Fae with that kind of power that no one knew about? Alive, undetected, and unknown for years?

Still, Lauren knew who would respond first.

"You didn't believe her, did you?" Evony's disgust was plain.

Lauren tried not to let her impatience show. It would only lead to mistakes, but the need for rest and food was affecting her hold on her own temper. "What I believe isn't the issue." She took a deep breath to calm herself - and to remind herself why staying calm was important.

Evony was a nemesis, yes, but Lauren didn't think the Morrigan wanted her gone. If anything, Lauren provided entertainment and someone to foil with on a regular basis. Yet Lauren couldn't give an inch of ground - Evony couldn't resist preying on a perceived weakness.

And Lauren wanted - needed - to make sure that the elders didn't decide to kill Bo. She convinced herself it was because there were too many unanswered questions, both personal and scientific, but there was also some truth to the possibility that she wanted to see her again.

"What I saw," Lauren continued, "is what led me to call you all here."

"What did you see?" Trick said.

He sounded calm, but Lauren hoped she was the only one who noticed how interested he was in her answer. His interest led her to believe that what she'd theorized was correct, that Trick would want Bo alive for reasons of his own.

"She lives alone, with no humans enthralled to her, " Lauren said, moving a mental pawn forward. This was a chess match of sorts, but it was one that she intended to win. There were eight Fae elders, but the Light Fae present would follow Trick's lead, and Lauren was certain that he side with her. The Dark Fae elders weren't easily aligned with one another, but they all acknowledged that the Morrigan was the most powerful Dark Fae alive if not ever.

Evony was Lauren's only true opponent.

"Where does she live?" One of the Dark Fae elders asked as if bored, with what Lauren thought was too casual a tone. He was fishing for details, no doubt planning to have one of his own clan handle what would be a viewed as a problem.

Lauren moved to block that action. "Away from humans for the most part, though she's never interacted with the Fae," Lauren said, pretending to answer a different question. She wasn't about to reveal Bo's location.

"That doesn't mean she hasn't," Evony said. "Let's just kill the little bitch and be done with it."

Trick shifted his weight in his chair, drawing everyone to look in his direction. "That's a hasty decision that implies weakness," Trick said in disapproval. "If we kill her, we won't learn where she came from and how she's eluded us for this long."

"When did she arrive in the colony?" Another of the Light Fae, an elf queen relatively new to the colony herself, asked of Lauren.

"I don't know for certain since she didn't announce her presence, but she can't have been here longer than a couple of months. She had no idea what I was talking about when I asked about her clan."

"What else did you tell her?" This question came from Dr. Everett, a Light Fae who had served at Trick's side for centuries.

Lauren sensed the implication that she had revealed too much of their world to this unknown succubus.

"Other than explaining to her that she was a succubus, nothing." Lauren said. That was true, wasn't it? She hadn't revealed anything else, had she? Lauren schooled her face to not betray her thoughts.

"And how exactly did you determine that she was a succubus?" Evony asked, a wicked grin stealing across her lips.

"She's a doctor, Evony," Trick said, saving Lauren from having to respond. "One who knows more about our kind than anyone in history."

"Oh, I bet _somebody_ played doctor." Evony laughed.

It took most of Lauren's concentration to keep from blushing.

"That's not the point," Trick said. "What are we going to do about the succubus?"

Lauren said nothing. It was too early in the game to reveal what outcome she wanted. She had to wait until the elders had staked their claims before she could counter with reasonable requests in her favor.

Tonight's mental and political match of human vs. Fae would be a long one.

XX-XX-XX

Bo didn't hurt anymore.

The aches had long faded and her head was clearer than it had been in weeks. Killing six people over the last few hours had improved her physical well-being, but she was once again creeping towards madness.

The last victim had been a tall, sturdy woman built like a Viking. Bo had found the woman smoking a joint in an alley behind some seedy nightclub on the edge of the downtown business district. Bo hadn't gone inside the club to hunt like she normally might have. With no money and wearing only jeans, a t-shirt and a stolen jacket, she wouldn't have been able to get through the door without attracting attention, much less blend in where all the attendees were dressed in black.

She started to laugh about the club's name - _really? "Seize the Night"? -_ until she remembered that she'd left a dead body in an alley where it would soon be discovered.

Not a victim - a body. Her mind reeled. She had left six bodies in her wake tonight. Was the way past all this gone now that she'd left Lauren? Was she a complete monster now? Was it too late to turn back?

She thought of all Lauren had told her, and once again, rejected it all in fear. She quickened her pace, doubling back along a side street that led to her neighborhood. The temperature had dropped again, and the sky had cleared. Her breath steamed in clouds in front of her face as she walked in the direction of the closest thing she had to a home, though that was about to change.

This town was done for. Now, she had to leave. Lauren had no doubt left the house, and as far as Bo was concerned, Lauren was obviously insane. None of that bullshit could be true.

How many times had she said that tonight? That everything Lauren had said couldn't possible be real? Yet Bo knew that it was true - all of it. And there was probably so much more that she didn't know - so much more that she didn't _want_ to know - that it was all hopeless.

No. She was leaving, and things would be different from this point forward. No more searching for answers. The ones that she'd found didn't mean anything.

She hoped she could keep lying to herself long enough to get out of town.

As she turned the corner to her street, Bo's carefully refined instincts led her to be cautious. It wasn't likely that Lauren had called the cops on her, but it was possible.

Across the street from the house was a building that had suffered a fire long before Bo had arrived, but had never been fully demolished. Bo snuck in one of the side doors and tread softly through the debris to a vantage point that gave a clear view of her house.

It was dark, but everything looked clear. Bo could see that her car was where she'd left it and she was relieved. She knew she still had to make an escape without anyone noticing, but that could be accomplished before daybreak if she moved fast enough.

Just as she let out a sigh of relief, she watched her door open across the street, and a tall bearded man stepped into the moonlight. Bo froze, watching him look around on the ground and then along the street.

She gasped when he looked in her direction. She started to take a step back when she heard the crunch of a footstep nearby. Bo felt a sensation that terrified her, one she'd never felt before.

 _Fuck._

Bo couldn't move. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't move her legs to turn around. She couldn't even turn her head. Bo saw the bearded man move in her direction, but she couldn't do anything to escape. Fear raced along her spine like water.

"Well, well, my pet," a low and menacing voice said behind her. Bo heard the crisp consonants of a British accent. "What have we here?"

XX-XX-XX

 ** _TBC. Just a few chapters left, but please review and let me know what you think of the story so far! ~VB517_**


	9. Chapter 9

**_Author's Note:_** _Back again after hiatus. Thanks for your patience! For those of you who reviewed this story (and the novella BIG CITY BLUES on Amazon), or who tweeted out links to the last update, thank you so much! You have no idea what it means to me._

 _Here in our story, we've a bit more dark before the dawn, but fear not. The good stuff is coming soon...but first, a little table turning..._

 _Hit me up in reviews and on social media to let me know what you think! Still on Twitter as virginiablk517 but now also on FB as Virginia Black and coming soon to Insta as virginiablk517. Find me where it's easiest for you._

 _And as always, thank you so much for reading. ~VB517_

 **CHAPTER 9**

Bo sighed, shifted her weight where she sat on the dirt floor and tilted her head back against the stone wall. She'd given up on pacing since it only kicked up dust, and the lack of ventilation led to a low cloud that made her cough.

There were no windows, no bench or cot for her to sit on, and the only light came from a small, wrought iron enclosed gaslight in a corner of the ceiling that was high out of her reach. A rudimentary spigot stuck out about knee-level on the wall, directly over a drainage ditch that ran along the floor. The stench coming from the large hole at the end of the drain made it clear what it was for.

So, now she'd seen a real dungeon.

Bo wished that she could say she'd lost track of time, but she hadn't. Three hours ago, the bearded man - Dyson, she'd heard him called - had removed heavier-than-usual handcuffs from her wrists, tossed her in this cell, and locked the iron door, all without a word. He'd ignored her protests the entire time and hadn't returned since.

She drew in a shaky breath and blinked away tears she knew would lead to sobbing if she didn't keep a lid on her fears. After all this time on the run, she'd finally been caught - not by the cops or whatever authority might put her in a mental institution, but by the very people she wanted to pretend didn't exist.

The Fae had captured Bo, and she didn't know what they would do to her.

Would they kill her? The emo-looking Englishman Dyson had called Vex seemed like he'd wanted to end her on the spot, but Dyson had argued that some elders should decide what happened to her. Vex had snarled, but hadn't disagreed.

She was scared of that one. His ability to control her movements was the most terrifying thing she'd experienced in her entire life – which was saying something - and she didn't want to be anywhere near him. Could he make her do anything? He'd only frozen her in place, but Bo had watched him wave an arm at Dyson, and seconds later Dyson had been holding a gun to his own head.

Dyson had growled and exposed canines that were not human. His eyes had changed color to something more animal than man, and only his threats of "retribution from the Ash" - whatever the hell that meant - had stayed Vex's hands.

If Vex could do that to someone of Dyson's size and nature, Bo wondered what he could do to her.

She closed her eyes and tried not to let the fear take over. _Guess Lauren was telling the truth._

The Fae were real, which meant that Bo really was one of them. Not some kind of twisted, psychotic human, but a dark, unnatural being - a succubus. Bo didn't remember everything she'd read in that book so long ago, but she knew now that all the impossible thoughts she'd had over the years were true. And though Lauren had said there was nothing wrong with her, Bo didn't believe it.

 _Lauren._ Thinking about Lauren was less emotionally perilous than thinking about the Fae she'd met or her own questionable fate. Bo imagined the woman she'd captured, and pictured Lauren wrapped in blankets in Bo's bed. Then Bo felt guilty for hurting Lauren in the first place.

She pushed the image of Lauren sick and dying from her mind and envisioned instead the woman she'd seen at the club. Lauren had seemed light and happy, proud of whatever accomplishment she'd been celebrating. She'd been persistent in an adorable way as she'd gently dragged Bo across the club to dance. Not innocent - no, the way she'd danced against Bo, tightly pressed against Bo's body on the dance floor, told Bo that Lauren was a skilled lover, but they'd never gotten that far, had they? Because Bo had tried to feed from her instead.

Bo would probably never see her again.

#####

Lauren took a slow, deep breath and tried not to exhale too loudly. She'd already unclenched her fists twice within the last hour and knew that her frustration was becoming visible.

Evony smirked at her and proved the point. Yet Lauren refused to give an inch. She couldn't let the elders decide to hunt Bo down and kill her.

Soon after she'd escaped Bo's house, real life had come flooding through her newly hydrated brain. A succubus who didn't know she was Fae had escaped detection for years yet somehow managed to remain hidden to both humans and Fae. She hadn't violated the One Rule yet, but that couldn't last. Lauren known immediately that the Fae would put Bo down without thought unless she somehow intervened.

She'd summoned the council for an emergency meeting - one that wasn't going well, but as long as Bo was still alive somewhere, Lauren had a fighting chance to convince them. If Lauren managed to persuade some key allies to her cause -

"You sure you didn't fuck her?" Evony's smirk had faded, but her ridicule remained. "You seem awfully determined to make sure she keeps breathing."

Lauren didn't take the bait.

"Evony, the human's sexual exploits aren't the issue." When Inkanya spoke, his deep voice rumbled across the room, and his calm demeanor belied his strength and power. He was the fourth and final Light Fae in the room, and his pale attire complimented his dark skin. "We must know where the succubus came from, and how she was hidden from us for so long." He lowered his hand from his temple and rested it with finality on the arm of the chair he dwarfed. "We must know who she truly is and killing her now will tell us nothing."

Lauren noticed that he hadn't ruled out killing Bo in the future.

"Agreed," Trick said.

"How can we find her if Lauren won't tell us where she is?" Another of the Dark Fae elders spoke, her voice laced with suspicion.

Lauren hedged. "She left before I did and isn't likely to return now that her lair was revealed." It was still too soon to reveal what little she knew. "I doubt she's escaped attention this long by making foolish mistakes."

"How did you end up there in the first place?" Aurelio, a Dark Fae of unknown power, leaned forward and glared at Lauren.

Lauren swallowed against a dry lump in her throat, pondering how to navigate such a direct question.

The library door opened, and Lauren tried not to collapse in relief. The others looked to the door with surprise since they were never disturbed.

Hale Santiago of Clan Zamora stepped into the room, looking apologetic as he walked quickly toward the Ash. "My deepest apologies, but there's been a development." A lithe black man with a youthful appearance, Hale approached Trick, and leaned over to whisper in his ear.

Trick frowned but nodded at Hale in dismissal, then turned his head to speak to the council after Hale closed the door.

"Dyson and Vex have found the succubus, and she's now in our custody."

And once again, the Light and Dark feuded within the calm confines of the library.

Lauren was shocked that Bo had been captured so soon and hoped that she hadn't been harmed in the process. She said nothing for a while, listening to the bickering between the Light and Dark. She'd trained herself long ago to listen when she was uncertain, to take in as many details as she could and to formulate a plan once she had enough information to act upon.

The arguments raged on for hours - whether Bo should be forced to choose Light or Dark, whether she knew enough to choose at all, whether she should be trained and taught or thrown into an underfae dungeon and left to rot.

Lauren listened, until finally, the conversation paused.

"Well, let's bring the little bitch in and get on with it," Evony declared into the silence.

#####

For one brief, quiet, dark moment, Bo let herself smile through her tears. She didn't know how, she didn't know why, she didn't know if she could ever do it again, but for once in the twisted fuckery that was her life, she had _stopped._

Bo hoped Lauren was healing, and somewhere safe. She could still remember the taste of her, the warmth of her skin, the smile of her eyes as they'd danced. It all made something within Bo seize as if she were in pain, though she wasn't. She didn't know how to describe the feeling.

Maybe her being right here in this dungeon was for the best. She was off the street and couldn't hurt anyone anymore. Maybe now, she wouldn't have to prey on people in the world like Lauren.

Bo heard the rumble of deep voices nearby, then the rattle and clang of keys in the door. She jumped to her feet, not sure what she would do to defend herself if they were coming to kill her, but certain that - whatever her fate - she would face it on her feet. And if she could figure out a way to escape...

The door opened. A huge, bald shadow stood against the brighter light of the hall, and once her eyes adjusted, she decided that he didn't look that menacing despite his size.

"Please come with me," he said as he gestured into the hall. Bo was surprised that he was so polite.

Bo thought about pulsing him but didn't want to press her luck. What if he wasn't alone? Could she count on him to get her out of here? She needed more information before she could try to make an escape.

Then again, if he was being so gracious, perhaps an execution wasn't on the docket. Bo followed him with wary footsteps into the hall, but then paused, seeing a man nearby who was his obvious twin brother.

Both stood still, as if waiting to see what she'd do. Bo took a deep breath and settled herself. She wouldn't try anything now, but that didn't mean that she'd go down quietly.

"This way," the first man said, and led the way down the hall. Bo followed, sensing the hulking presence of the other man behind her.

The damp, dark stone and gaslight of the dungeon gave way to the dark metal of a spiral staircase that wound up three flights before the stone changed to wood. Candlelit corridors led to the recessed electric light of stately halls with expensive carpet, and now Bo felt intimidated by the wealth she could see in the decor.

Where was she? Dyson had covered her head with a hood when he'd brought her here, so Bo didn't even know what part of town she was in, though she knew that they hadn't travelled far.

The large man before her stopped in front of a huge set of double dark wood doors, and with one last glance at her - and a surprisingly kind smile - he opened one door and motioned her into the room beyond.

Bo stepped into the biggest library she'd ever seen in someone's house, but the books weren't what captivated her immediate attention. Nor was it the sight of several ridiculously ornate chairs, most of them filled with people frowning at her.

Instead, Bo found herself staring at the only familiar person in the room, one she never expected to see again.

Lauren looked back at her, and unlike Bo, she didn't look surprised at all to see her.

#####

Lauren tried not to move a muscle.

When Bo took wary steps into the room, she seemed shocked to see Lauren. Bo was still wearing the clothes Lauren had last seen her in - faded jeans and an old t-shirt. She'd acquired an ill-fitting olive jacket since last night, but what Lauren noticed most was her much improved condition.

Despite her trashy clothing, Bo looked fantastic. Her hair was now full-bodied and not thin and brittle. Her skin was healthy and vibrant instead of pale and drawn. Lauren thought she looked radiant, which meant that Bo had fed - and well.

Lauren wondered how many people had died so that Bo could look so healthy.

"Lauren?" Bo frowned in confusion. "What are you doing here?"

"You're in no position to ask questions," Evony said.

Bo glanced at Evony, but then turned her attention back to Lauren. "Who are these people?"

Lauren knew she couldn't answer, at least not yet, but for some reason she didn't understand she wished that she could set Bo at ease.

Lauren was surprised to discover that she cared more about Bo's feelings in this discussion than was wise.

"Child." Inkanya spoke to Bo before Lauren could speak a word. "Tell us your name."

Lauren knew that he was trying to sound benevolent, but inwardly, she cringed. Bo wasn't some kid who'd been caught stealing candy from the corner store. She was a grown woman who'd lived on the run without detection and without knowing anything about her true nature.

Bo would likely respond like an animal backed into a corner - and Inkanya's condescension wouldn't be well received.

"I'm not your child," Bo said, her stance communicating that she was ready for a fight, just as Lauren had suspected she might. "I don't know who the hell you are, or why you think you can just snatch me off the streets, but you're gonna let me go or there'll be hell to pay."

Evony laughed. "Honey, you're playing with the big dogs now. Settle down before you piss yourself."

Now, Lauren mentally rolled her eyes. This wasn't going to go well. She prayed for some sort of rational intervention.

Trick didn't disappoint. "We only want to know who you are, and where you're from."

"Who I am is none of your business," Bo said, but Lauren thought she detected a bit of hesitancy in Bo's tone. She knew Bo wanted answers, and if Bo would only calm down enough to listen, she might be able to get some of them here.

Lauren shifted her weight in her unusually uncomfortable chair, still tired after her long ordeal and this endless night, but it drew Bo's attention to her again.

"Lauren, what the fuck is going on?"

When Bo spoke, Lauren could sense the underlying fear, and worried that it was as apparent to the elders as it was to her.

"Who are you, Lauren?" It sounded like more of an accusation than a question. "And what is this place?"

Lauren recognized the irony of the situation as Bo repeated the same questions she'd asked of Bo just a few hours before.

The tables had turned, and now Lauren was on the side holding someone hostage.

#####

 ** _TBC. Your comments and feedback would be appreciated! ~VB517 (at virginiablk517)_**


	10. Chapter 10

**CHAPTER 10**

The sound of booted heels on rapid approach was enough warning to wake Lauren. She raised her head from her desk, blinked grit from her eyes and tried to focus on the bundle of energy bouncing into her office. Hopefully, she hadn't fallen asleep for very long - particularly since she hadn't planned to sleep at all.

"Hey, Doc!" Kenzi said. "New phone's ready for bio deets."

Mackenzie "Kenzi" Malikov was one of Dyson's street informants. Her hacking skills had landed her on Dyson's radar, but over the last year she had wormed her way into the world of the Fae. Though technically claimed by the Ash, she came and went as she pleased for the most part - as long as she provided information to Dyson when required and performed the occasional technological task.

As usual, Kenzi was dressed for a late night at a club - all black and silver and heavy eyeliner. Her very essence seemed to clash with the sedate walls of Lauren's laboratory here in the Light Fae compound.

"Jesus, Lauren, you look like shit."

Lauren sighed. "Thanks, Kenzi." She reached out to accept the smartphone Kenzi offered her, then squinted at the blurry screen until it came into focus. She noted with a wince that it was after 7am. She'd been asleep for all of ten minutes...all the rest she'd managed since she'd woken up yesterday afternoon at Bo's industrial crash pad.

No wonder she felt as bad as Kenzi said she appeared. She'd been up all night dealing with...the situation...and was still recovering from Bo's attack. And it would probably be a couple more hours before she could finally go to bed.

"What are you doing here so early?" Lauren didn't recognize her own voice, her fatigue making her sound deeper than usual.

"The club where I was drinking tonight just closed an hour ago." Kenzi snapped her gum loudly enough to make Lauren cringe. "Dyson said you needed this ASAP so I came right over."

Kenzi walked her through the prompts on the small screen until she grew frustrated with Lauren's slow progress and snatched the phone back to configure it herself. "What's this I hear about you getting snatched off the streets like a cartel mule?"

Dyson must have shared a few details with Kenzi, and her casual tone belied her obvious concern. Lauren was touched – which meant she really needed to get some sleep. Kenzi wasn't one for sentiment, so Lauren was probably misreading her interest. Either that, or Dyson had entrusted Kenzi with enough information to make her truly curious.

In any case, Lauren couldn't suppress the urge to answer. "My usual luck. I go out for _one_ drink and dance with _one_ woman and she turns out to be an unaligned, untrained succubus who nearly kills me before kidnapping me and keeping me captive for days."

Kenzi shot her a look she didn't recognize. Lauren realized that she had never before spoken like this to Kenzi, but it was too late to take it back. She felt the emotion she'd been trying to keep tamped down for the last few hours once again try to escape.

Lauren had faced death before, and with as much time as she spent around the Fae, she'd likely face it again. Still, she didn't usually let her emotions get the best of her, even when her life was on the line.

This time had been different, perhaps because she hadn't thought that going to a club with friends would turn into a near-death situation. Yet it had, and when she thought about how close she'd come -

She felt the burn of tears in her eyes. _Calm down. You're just tired._ This wasn't the time to fall apart. She could do that later, when she was alone - crawl into her bed, have a good cry and then sleep.

"How'd you escape?"

Kenzi's concern seemed genuine, and Lauren laughed without humor, wiping tears from her cheek. "I told her what she was, since she didn't seem to know. She freaked out and forgot to lock me up before she ran screaming." It wasn't much of an exaggeration.

Kenzi let out a low whistle.

"But," Lauren sighed. "I've never seen anything like her, Kenzi. I think even you'd be impressed."

"Oh, I saw that giant dose of sin walking when they moved her after the council session. I can see why you fell into her clutches, and you've got nothing to be ashamed of. She'd turn anyone." Kenzi rolled her eyes. "Ok, not _me_ , but anyone else with less love for the peen."

Lauren laughed through her tears.

"Still, I heard she ended six people in, like, a few hours. You sure about this?" Kenzi hopped up on Lauren's desk, oblivious to the items she was throwing in disarray. "What is it about this chick, Doc? You don't even know her and you said she almost killed you. Why do you care what happens to her?"

And that was the penultimate question, for Lauren as well. For all Bo had done, Lauren couldn't bear to see any harm come to her. That was why she had called the council in the first place - if any of them had found out about Bo any other way, they'd have killed her on the spot. Lauren had surmised that if _all_ of the council knew about Bo and had to collectively decide what happened to her next, then no one Fae could take it upon themselves to act against that decision.

With little time and barely any energy to come up with a better plan, Lauren had played the best hand she could deal for Bo, though she knew Bo disagreed.

Lauren wasn't about to tell Kenzi how Bo had affected her, how hard it had been to keep quiet while the argument raged on, while Bo nearly seethed with anger at Lauren herself. Yet Lauren hadn't been able to look away.

Even untrained and backed into a corner, Bo was the most captivating woman Lauren had ever seen.

She realized she'd taken too long answering Kenzi's question, but luckily, Kenzi was too impatient to dig deeper.

"Guess she got under your skin. Better watch your back, Doc."

Kenzi didn't bother waiting for a response. She tapped a few more times against the screen of the smartphone and then handed it to Lauren. "Text me if you need help," she said in closing as she pushed herself off the desk. "I'm outta here. This place is fuckin' creepy."

Lauren didn't have the energy to do anything but manage a wan smile. "Thanks, Kenzi."

Kenzi flashed a peace sign with one hand on her way out the door.

Alone again, Lauren tried to collect enough energy to get out of her chair. Her body ached with the need for rest, but she knew she had to make one more stop before she dragged herself to her bed. She was trying to delay because she knew it was going to be the most difficult conversation she'd had so far this night, and that was saying something.

Back in the council chambers, Lauren had sensed something that no doubt others in the room had noticed as well. Hell, she knew Trick and Evony had seen it - the pure, unfettered power that Bo wasn't even aware she radiated. A succubus was probably cognizant of her own effect on people, but it was possible that Bo thought it had to do with sexual energy.

Lauren knew it was more than that. Much more. With enough training, Bo could be one of the most formidable Fae in the entire colony.

Still, she was an unknown quantity, and there were those who would see her put down before she could outshine them.

With the Dark demanding her execution, the Light vying for more information, and Bo screaming at them all about interfering in her life, Lauren had finally lobbed her solution into the fray, knowing it would satisfy most - if not all - parties.

She wondered how much Bo hated her for it.

XX-XX-XX

The room was clean and luxurious, but it was still just another cell.

Twenty feet wide and half again as long, it gave Bo plenty of space to storm back and forth. A large area rug covered the aged wood beam floor. _Probably worth ten times the value of everything in and including my car,_ Bo thought.

She hoped nothing had happened to her car.

There were windows this time, but they were too small and too high up for her to try to escape through them. One corner held a king-sized bed, matching nightstands and chests of drawers. Another corner had a sitting area with chairs and couches. A third corner had a table for four, though Bo couldn't imagine having that many visitors. One door led to a closet, the second to an equally luxurious bathroom.

The last door, and the only way out, was thick, iron, and locked - and thinking about it made her itch.

Every other available stretch of wall was covered in shelves and bookcases, all filled with books. Some seemed much older than Bo herself, but she hadn't looked too closely. She couldn't relax enough to read right now - she was a prisoner, and she needed to figure out how she was going to get out of here.

Somehow, she had to escape, or she was well and truly fucked.

Bo reached one end of the room again, and turned to continue her pacing. She replayed the whole night over in her mind's eye, trying to determine what she could have done differently, but in the end it didn't matter. No matter how much she thought about doing something other than what she'd done, it changed nothing. She was still imprisoned here.

Dyson and Vex had arrived in the library soon after Bo. Each man told tales of finding the dead bodies Bo had left in her wake, and the temperature in the room had grown colder.

The seated people - though not Lauren, Bo had noticed - ranted at her about how close she had come to breaking some rule. Bo had told them that she knew nothing of their rules, but when they'd said that the rule was not to reveal their existence, she'd almost laughed.

What the hell had she been doing for the last decade if not hiding her existence?

She'd said as much, and then the inquisition had continued, with the whole cast of freaks asking her questions about her life. Some she could have answered, but others were questions Bo had herself. Who were her real parents? Why had they abandoned her?

Bo had demanded her release but the dark-haired femme fatale had laughed at her and told Bo that she should be grateful they were letting her live.

Then she'd watched them bicker over the details of her life - _her life -_ as if they had the right do it.

Finally, the hammer had dropped, and Bo was still reeling about who'd done the dropping.

The result was a three-month sentence in captivity, and the worst part of it had been that it was all Lauren's idea.

The woman Bo had nearly killed and spent days trying to save was now the reason why she was in this room. Lauren was nothing like Bo had thought. She wasn't some innocent woman caught in the clutches of Bo's dark appetites.

No, she was part of some secret society of freaks who thought they could decide what Bo could or couldn't do with her life.

There were plenty of targets for Bo's anger, but Lauren was an easy one, and right then, Bo decided she hated her.

She heard the clank of the door lock. Seconds later, the woman who occupied her thoughts walked in with one of the huge guards that had brought Bo to this room.

Bo started breathing so hard, she couldn't form words. One the one hand, here was the woman who had ensured that Bo would continue to be held against her will. On the other, she was still the beautiful and exceptional woman who'd enticed Bo to throw all her own rules out the window.

The dichotomy made Bo grind her teeth.

Lauren looked at her, and then whispered something to the guard that made him frown, but with a nod, he left the room.

The door lock clanked again.

Lauren took a step forward, and then stopped, as if she didn't have the energy to take another step. She took a deep breath and spoke first into the weighted silence.

"I'm sorry."

And with that, Bo knew exactly what to say to her. "Fuck you. You're not sorry at all."

Lauren wiped a hand over her face, as if trying to wipe away fatigue. It made Bo angry, because Lauren's exhaustion was her fault.

All of this was Bo's fault. If only she'd fed sooner. If only she'd stuck to her own long-held rules at the club. If only she hadn't fed from Lauren. If only she hadn't kidnapped her. It was endless, and yet these were just recent additions to the long, _long_ list of reasons to be angry at herself.

It was easier to take it out on someone else.

"I don't care about how _sorry_ you are. You need to let me go."

"We've been over this." Lauren's voice faded, and she cleared her throat. "I can't do that."

"You can't keep me here for three fucking months! You have no right-"

"That's true, I don't, but I have to. There's so much you don't understand-"

"I don't give a fuck about that," Bo said.

Lauren blinked, but it was too slow, and it took her a moment to focus back on Bo, but Bo didn't want to acknowledge how completely worn out Lauren was. She needed to find some leverage.

"Why are you keeping me here? What do you want from me?"

Lauren hung her head, and then looked at Bo. "I don't want anything from you, Bo. Not really - though your cooperation would be nice." Lauren winced when Bo's jaw dropped. "I really am trying to help. I swear I'm doing what I can for all involved."

"Oh, _bullshit."_ Bo didn't believe a word of it. "You're getting something out of this, you just won't tell me what. Are all Fae this backhanded and chickenshit?"

It was meant to be a dig, but she watched Lauren's eyebrows rise and fall. "Actually, yes, but that's not the point, and not what I'm trying to do here."

That made Bo wonder for a moment, and she spoke before she could stop herself. "What kind of Fae are you?"

Lauren laughed, but it sounded hollow to Bo.

"You think this is funny? This is my life!"

Lauren sighed, and it made her shoulders fall. She ran a pale hand through her hair and collapsed on the arm of the chair behind her.

"No, Bo, I do not think it's funny, but you'll have to excuse me. I'm not exactly at my best."

Bo winced at that. She knew that much was her fault.

"I'm laughing because I'm not Fae." She looked at Bo with bloodshot eyes. "I'm human."

Bo frowned. She didn't understand all the dynamics, but if all Fae were as powerful as the ones she'd tangled with tonight, Lauren had some spine.

Lauren tilted her head, as if considering something, and then sighed. "I've...worked with the Fae for the last five years. It's a tenuous relationship at best, so I try to abide by their rules. And you've come dangerously close to breaking the only one that matters."

"Oh my god, fuck their rules!" Bo couldn't help but pace the floor again. "I don't know shit about them, and I don't want to know. I will steer clear, believe me, if you will just _let me out!"_

Lauren gazed around the room slowly, as if seeing it for the first time. "It's not that simple, Bo. Whether you like it or not, you're Fae, and there are things that you need to know." She looked back at Bo. "You said you had questions. Don't you still want the answers?"

Bo choked down the sudden urge to cry. The answers she'd found already were more than enough to give her nightmares. She felt the desperation growing. Lauren wasn't giving an inch - and Bo didn't know how to convince her.

She'd spent days trying to keep this woman alive, only to end up in the worst predicament possible.

"I saved your life." Bo winced and hoped that Lauren didn't see it. She didn't really mean to imply she was owed a debt of some kind. It had all been Bo's fault, but she was furious...and terrified.

Lauren snapped and jumped to her feet, though she swayed a bit. "I just returned the favor!"

Bo changed tactics, but she knew she was losing. "You had _no right_ to tell them anything about me, Lauren!"

Lauren sighed again. "And you have no idea how very much worse it could have been."

Bo laughed without humor. "How stupid do you think I am? You think I don't know they're gonna kill me if this little training run of yours doesn't work to their satisfaction?" She spoke low, and felt dangerous. "I'm not an idiot."

Lauren's eyebrows peaked, then fell as she glanced away. "Yes, that's a possibility, but it's not likely, Bo. You have no reason to trust me, but I'm asking anyway. I believe that you can learn the things you'll need to survive in the Fae world. I can help you -"

"All you care about is having a living, breathing lab rat," Bo said. "I heard them call you Doctor, and talk about your experiments and expertise." She seethed. "You just want to fucking poke and prod me. Is that it?"

Lauren frowned, and had the nerve to look insulted. "That's not true, Bo. I want you to thrive-"

"Then let me out!" Bo knew she sounded desperate in her anger, and when she took a step forward, Lauren backed towards the door.

Her movement stopped Bo in her tracks. "I'm not going to hurt you, Lauren."

Despite her obvious fatigue, Lauren adjusted her stance and stood her ground. "That may be the case, but I didn't walk through that gauntlet of a council meeting to save your ass only to have you throw your one chance away by attacking me again."

"I wasn't going to -" Bo stopped, and shook her head. She may not have planned to do anything, but Lauren had every right to think she might. After all, she'd done it before.

Yet it wasn't fear that Bo saw in Lauren's eyes - only cool calculation, and though Bo didn't want to acknowledge it, regret. Bo might hate the woman, but she was impressed.

Lauren had been through hell, and wasn't giving an inch.

"Look, Bo." Her voice cracked, and when she spoke again, it was hoarse and faint. "You'll have everything you need here."

Bo must have given some indication of disbelief that she wasn't aware of.

"Yes, everything," Lauren said. "I swear. You'll be able to feed, but you have to learn more about who you are before..." She stopped, as if second-guessing her own words.

She wasn't even going to promise Bo's possible release.

"Please, Bo. Trust me."

Desolate with loss, Bo couldn't even string the words together to tell Lauren where she could shove that request.

Lauren gave up, banged on the door with a closed fist until it opened, and then left Bo alone.

Bo didn't even make it to the bed. She sank to the floor, blinded by tears and sobbing with rage.

Alone and trapped, she had no leverage, no cards to play, and no one to come to her aid.

There was nowhere left for her to run.

XX-XX-XX

Three weeks later, as she walked through the outer courtyard of the compound, Lauren finally felt fully recovered from Bo's attack. She wanted to feel the sun on her face, even if it was only for the few minutes before her next appointment.

It had taken what felt like forever, but she was back to her physical baseline, and even the cold, late winter chill couldn't keep her inside today.

A shadow moved across the courtyard and manifested into a huge but gentle ogre. Eric was one of the Light Fae assistants in Lauren's lab, and he changed trajectories when he saw her. Judging by his sad expression, he didn't have good news.

"Hi, Lauren." He slowed to match her pace without making a sound. "I just came from Bo's chambers." When he shrugged, it seemed like a mountain was moving. "There's been no change."

"Thanks, Eric." Lauren hadn't expected one.

He sighed. "I thought she'd perk up a few days ago when you brought her things from her, um, house."

Eric was being kind - Bo's former residence probably needed to be demolished. Lauren would have laughed if the situation weren't so dire. Still, she couldn't bring herself to joke about it. "It was worth a shot, but at this point..."

She knew that he understood, but didn't really want to talk about it with him. At this point, she was tired of talking about it at all, but for some reason, she couldn't let this go, no matter what others might think about the situation.

Her staff advised her to throw in the towel. Dyson had tried to convince her to turn Bo over to the council's judgment once and for all. Two Dark Fae elders had offered to take Bo off her hands, which was absolutely out of the question. And the Morrigan had been strangely silent, which worried Lauren - a lot - because it probably meant that Evony was up to something.

The Ash expected miracles and regular reports but didn't offer much in the way of guidance, which surprised Lauren. She'd kept her ear to the ground for five years, heard a lot of rumors, and done her due diligence to find out what was fact or fiction. She had a theory, but if she was wrong...she wasn't sure what the consequences might be. Still, it was her last option.

She needed to appeal to the Ash about Bo.

Eric nodded in parting as they came to the long hallway that led to Trick's receiving rooms. Lauren continued alone, wondering how to go about convincing Trick to do something he probably didn't want to do.

She knocked on the door, heard Trick's gentle call to enter, and stepped inside.

Though immense and equal to Trick's standing in the Fae community, the dark wood chambers were warm without being stuffy. Trick stepped out from behind his desk on a raised platform, and met her halfway across the room. He offered a hand and a smile in greeting.

"Thank you for seeing me," Lauren said, clasping his hand in return. Her words were as much for the two guards stationed on either side of the door as they were for Trick, though they'd probably been told to expect her.

"Of course, Lauren," Trick said. "I'm happy to make time for you whenever possible. You know that." He waved an arm towards two wing-backed chairs in front of the fireplace.

She nodded with a small smile as she sat down. "I do, and I appreciate it."

"You're looking much better."

"I'm feeling much better, thank you." Lauren said, and thought about her first day back in the compound after her ordeal.

After her first time visiting Bo's new quarters, she'd gone straight to her apartment. While she'd hoped that things would go better with Bo, she wasn't completely surprised that they hadn't gone well. She'd been too tired to fight anymore, and decided there was nothing to be done until she got some rest. Once home, she'd made a few phone calls about Bo's care, and then crawled into bed.

As predicted, the tears had come when she finally allowed herself to feel how close she'd been to her own death. She cried until she gave in to the fatigue, and slept.

She woke up starving sixteen hours later, and did nothing but eat, check on Bo's status, and sleep for the first week.

"Good, good," he said, though he seemed distracted. "So, tell me. How's your charge faring?"

Every conversation with Trick since Bo's arrival had been exactly like this. He'd lead with small talk, then immediately inquire about Bo's condition. Each time, he'd play it off as if he was only asking out of politeness.

At first, Lauren had wondered whether he was after Bo's potential power, like the Dark Fae, but she didn't think so. Her gut was telling her that his interest was about something else.

It was that _something else_ that Lauren was desperately counting on to save Bo, but she didn't think she could bring it up in front of the guards.

She glanced at them, and then looked pointedly back at Trick.

He frowned, considered the request without comment, and then dismissed the guards.

Lauren took a deep breath.

"Have you been satisfied with my work here, Trick?" It was a soft opening, and a bit of a diversion, but Lauren had a plan.

He seemed surprised at the question. "Of course! Your work in the Congo saved the Fae, even if some of us are reluctant to admit it, and you've done nothing but good for us for the last five years."

"Have you ever regretted granting my request?"

He shook his head. "No - no, I agreed with you that the Fae needed to move into the 21st century. At some point, the One Rule will be broken and we'll be discovered. Having a human representative on the council will only make the eventual conflict easier to navigate."

She nodded. "I take my commitment very seriously. While I hope that at some point, humans and Fae can co-exist peacefully, until then, my loyalty is to the Light Fae."

Trick smiled, but it didn't quite reach his eyes. "I know these things, Lauren, and I trust you with the Fae's best interests. You've proved that more than once. "

Lauren leaned forward, and stared at Trick, holding his gaze. "I want to make sure you understand that I hold the Fae's existence in the utmost confidence. Unless the Fae are discovered while I live, I will never expose anything I've learned about the Fae in general, or any one Fae in particular."

"Consider me reassured." Now he seemed almost angry. Though he was a dwarf's diminutive size, he was still the Ash and not used to being crossed. "What's this about, Lauren?"

In fact, that power helped prove Lauren's actual point.

"Bo's refusing treatment, and I won't continue unless she gives her consent."

Trick leaned back. "That's unrealistic, but if it truly matters to you, I have faith that you'll make her see reason. You've certainly achieved the impossible before." He nodded as if the matter was resolved. "You'll find a solution before the deadline established with the council."

Lauren matched his posture. "We won't have to worry about the timeline. She'll be dead in a matter of days."

Trick couldn't pretend to look away, his furrowed brow showing his surprise and fear. "What do you mean?"

"She hasn't fed since she got here. I didn't think she'd be able to hold out, but she has sent away everyone we've presented - male, female, Fae - even human, though that was a dangerous gamble. She barely eats the food I send in, and she's dehydrated. " Lauren sighed. "I don't think she's sleeping well, but I do know she's barely holding on. I've seen her look bad, but nothing like this."

Lauren leaned forward, her elbows on her knees as she clasped her hands together. "She'll either collapse or snap and attack one of the guards. If she does, they'll put her down. She can't hold back much longer."

Yesterday had been the last straw.

 _When Lauren had entered Bo's room and closed the door behind her, she was briefly afraid that Bo had escaped. The room appeared empty._

 _"Go away." A scratchy voice came from the far corner, and Lauren realized that, even though it was late afternoon, Bo was still in bed._

 _Lauren didn't want to mince words. "Bo, you have to stop refusing treatment."_

 _Bo didn't respond at first, but then, "You." Bo's disdain was clear._

 _Lauren felt the air in the room change, and knew she wasn't welcome._

 _Bo had sounded different. Raw. Threatening. "You are not the master of me."_

 _"I am not, but -" Lauren had faltered, unsure how to proceed. Finally, she thought the only thing she could offer was the truth. "You have to feed, Bo. You'll die in here if you don't. I don't think you want that."_

 _She'd heard a dark laugh, and then the bedcovers had finally moved. Bo stood from the bed, and Lauren gasped at the difference._

 _Dressed in a loose hospital gown, Bo was sunken in on herself. Her dark hair was brittle, the outline of her bones sharp against skin that was even paler than the day they'd spoken in Bo's abandoned house. She looked like a drug addict, and in a way, Lauren supposed she was - denied the chi that sustained her._

 _"You don't know what I want," Bo had said, stalking toward Lauren. "You've locked me up, sent your goons to either fuck me for your experiments or prod me with needles for your tests. I am no one's lab rat."_

 _She stopped out of arms reach, and Lauren watched in shock as Bo's eyes changed quickly between dark brown - almost black - and iridescent blue then back again. Over and over as if parts of her were fighting for dominance._

 _"You think because you send me trinkets and give me homework like some child..." Bo waved an arm at a pile of new clothes tossed over the back of a chair, next to a pile of Fae history books Lauren had stacked on the table during her last visit. "That I'll just suddenly change my mind and let you run your fucking tests?"_

 _Lauren shook her head. "That's not true, Bo. We -" She spoke the truth. "I just want to make you more comfortable."_

 _"Bullshit!" Bo growled. "You don't care about anything but results, and nothing I want matters. For all I know, you've been spying on me the whole time."_

 _Lauren didn't dare respond to that. In truth, there_ had _been active cameras in this room, but Lauren had insisted that they be disabled. She couldn't give Bo much, but a little privacy was something she could manage._

 _She wasn't sure what to say, and truth be told, she was shocked at the change in Bo's condition. Bo had lost a surprising amount of weight in such a short time. Lauren was frightened by the change._

 _"I am no one's toy." Bo sneered at Lauren. "Tell your elders you've failed, and let's get this over with. I'd rather be dead than suffer one more day of this cage you've put me in." Her voice grew in volume until she was bellowing at Lauren. "Out! Kill me or let me out!"_

 _It had taken everything Lauren had in her to stand her ground, clinging to the talisman in her pocket like a lifeline._

 _"I can't let you do that, Bo-"_

 _With a scream of rage, Bo had leapt at Lauren, knocked her to the floor and begun to feed. Within seconds, she'd coughed up black dust - blocked from Lauren's life force by the cursed amulet Lauren held clasped in her lab coat pocket._

 _Bo had howled then, and Lauren knew it was despair. Bo crawled away, made herself small on the floor against the wall, and sobbed._

 _"Why are you doing this to me? Is it because I hurt you? I'm sorry."_

 _Lauren sat up, fighting tears herself. She didn't know what to say, but she couldn't let Bo leave. Not yet. If Bo walked out the door, she'd be dead in minutes at worst and hours at best._

 _"Bo, please -"_

 _Bo wasn't listening. "Just let me die. Nobody will know. Nobody will care or miss a monster and a murderer, and I don't want to be here anymore." She sobbed so hard she couldn't talk anymore._

 _Nothing Lauren said had made a difference._

She couldn't let this one provocative, beautiful woman with so much potential die without exhausting every option. Even if that woman hated her for it. And Lauren had already tried everything else she could think of.

Lauren couldn't get through to her.

"You're closer to her than anyone, Lauren." Trick sighed with finality. "If she won't listen to you-"

"I'm not the one she'll listen to, Trick."

He furrowed his brow in confusion.

She stood, walked over and sat down on the low table before Trick's chair. It was forward, and he looked surprised, but she was out of options.

"She's lost all hope, Trick. She doesn't think there's a single thing that this world has to offer her, and that the world we've described is some kind of hell. She can't see any advantages of being Fae, because she has nothing to hold on to, and thinks that I'm only interested in her biology and not her friendship."

It was time to test Lauren's hypothesis.

"She believes that she has no one, that no one in this world truly cares about what happens to her, so she trusts no one, and doesn't believe that she has a real chance of getting out of that room. She doesn't believe us." Lauren wouldn't let Trick look away, and tried to convey how serious this was. "And if she doesn't believe us, she won't feed. She'll die in that room, Trick, either because she's starved herself to death or because she'll give in and go on some rampage that will make the elders put her down, and I know that you and I will be the worse for it."

Lauren leaned closer and lowered her voice, knowing that what she had to say must only be heard by him.

"She needs something to hope for, Trick." She dropped her voice to a whisper. "She needs family."

Trick's eyes widened, and the surprised glare that followed confirmed that her hypothesis was true.

XX-XX-XX

Bo spent most of her time in bed. Sometimes she slept, but most of the time she didn't.

She'd pulsed one of the giant guards that first day and tried to escape, but they'd only made it as far as the other side of the door. Then, his twin had tazed her escape plan into a stupor, and Bo had spent the rest of the afternoon nursing one hell of a headache.

The next day, two of them showed up - one with a huge tray of food and juice and water, the other with a Taser.

The first set down the tray and then took off his shirt. She'd asked him about it, and he'd said that he was there to service any of her needs.

As delectable as he was, the whole thing had pissed her off. Service. As if she had a choice. This was probably one of Lauren's bright fucking ideas, so hell no. Bo would starve first.

At first she was being difficult, but then it became a habit. She hadn't planned a hunger strike - she'd just been too depressed to eat anything. Then later, when she'd tried, she'd puked it all back up.

After a few days, when the depression had set in as she'd grown more hungry, she wondered what the point of any of this was. Lauren had come in a few times, but seeing her filled Bo with so many feelings she didn't know how to process them - anger, resentment, guilt, and worst of all, want - she'd told the woman to fuck off half a dozen times.

Not that it did her any good. No amount of begging or accusation changed that woman's persistence, so Bo fought back the only way she could.

Until she didn't want to fight anymore. After all, there was no escape.

Which left her only one way out.

And after yesterday's outburst and failed attack on Lauren - _again_ , she thought with dark humor - the end was probably sooner rather than later. Even Lauren had to see that it was all hopeless, and her damned elders wouldn't need to be convinced.

She heard the clang of the door's lock and then the creak of the door. Part of her prayed that it wasn't Lauren, but another part wished it was. She felt awful about yesterday - was it yesterday? Bo hoped she hadn't hurt her. She hated Lauren, but she didn't want her dead.

She heard the door close, and then nothing. She supposed that she might be curious, but not enough to sit up and do anything about it. Besides, she was tired. They'd go away eventually.

"I've been told that you're refusing treatment."

The voice sounded familiar. Bo sat up slowly and blinked toward the door.

A man sat in one of the chairs across the room. Slight in stature, he leaned back casually in the chair, with an arm extended on the armrest, one finger tapping against the wood. She recognized him as one of the council elders - the Ash, they'd called him - and wondered if he was here to kill her.

Did this one small Fae man possess the power to end her life? She thought that perhaps she should be afraid, but all she wanted to do was get this over with, whatever it was. Maybe if she pissed him off, it'd be done sooner. Anything was better than day after day of this... _nothingness._

"Treatment? Is that what you call it when you Fae lock people up against their will?"

"You're Fae, too."

She really didn't want to hear that, and his calm, matter of fact tone annoyed Bo. She wanted to wring his neck, but that meant crossing the room, so she resisted the urge.

"Not if I can help it." She knew she sounded petulant, but whoever he was, he really needed to fuck off.

"You're not helping much, apparently. I didn't have you pegged as a coward."

That got her out of bed. She flew halfway across the room, until the effort nauseated her and forced her to stop.

"I'm not a coward."

He crooked an eyebrow, but didn't move otherwise. "By not eating, or feeding, you're choosing a passive death. In this case, I'd say that's a coward's choice. "

"You don't know shit," Bo spat. "You don't know what I've been through. You don't know anything about me."

He sighed and leaned forward in the chair, gazing unfocused at the floor. He was intent on something, and it took him a long time to respond.

"I know who you are, Ysabeau," he said eventually, and Bo froze.

She felt like her heart stopped beating. She couldn't make her feet move and her entire body felt like ice water had been poured through her veins. She felt the tremor of her hands as if some part of her sensed the truth her mind wasn't ready for when she heard that name.

A name she knew was hers even though she'd never heard it before.

She tried to speak, but nothing came out of her mouth.

"I know," he said, and finally, looked at her with sad eyes. "Because I'm your grandfather."

XX-XX-XX

 ** _TBC. Just a few more chapters to go! Feedback encouraged here and on Twitter. virginiablk517_**


	11. Chapter 11

**CHAPTER 11**

 _FOUR MONTHS LATER_

"Order up!"

Bo pocketed several loonies along with a phone number on a slip of paper that had been left under an empty beer mug, and finished wiping the table. In less than a minute, the table was once again occupied by patrons flirting with her while they gave her drink orders.

It was Saturday night, the Dal Riata was past capacity, and Bo was a popular girl.

Bo excused her way through the crowd and to the food prep area, picked up the latest food order, and dove back into the fray. Though the Dal catered to exclusively Fae clientele, at its heart it was a pub, and Bo had worked in so many bars, clubs and pubs over the last decade, she'd forgotten more of those places than she remembered.

This world, for the most part, she understood. Two months wasn't the longest stint she'd every worked, but it had been long, long time since she had.

Trick owned the Dal, but his lieutenant Dyson was the general manager. Neither of them actually worked here, Bo had learned, but one of them had been in a position to strongly suggest to the other that she'd make a fine addition to the staff. She'd been working here ever since.

As she hustled to keep up with the rush, Bo found herself relieved to have something to do.

 _Trick's words fell like pebbles on the floor, tiny echoes ringing in Bo's ears until she found her voice._

 _"My - my grandfather?" Bo could only manage a whisper._

 _He nodded, clasping his hands together in front of him, elbows on his knees. He didn't look up, though Bo wanted to see the truth of his words in his eyes. She couldn't handle one more mistruth or injustice, no matter how much she thought she deserved them, so she prayed he wasn't lying to her._

 _If he was, she thought she might find a way to slit her own throat._

 _"Yes. We'd probably have to test our blood to be sure." He winced at this, though Bo didn't understand why. "But you bear too much of a resemblance to my wife, and my -" He paused to clear his throat, and continued. "My daughter. I don't need such a test. I know who you are."_

 _Bo took a step closer, resting an arm on the back of another chair, needing its support. "How can you be so sure?"_

 _He sat still like stone, but his thumbs worried over the tops of his clasped hands. "My wife died a long, long time ago." He sounded sad, and Bo could see that he still missed her. "Ysabeau, was a succubus. So was - is - our daughter. "_

 _The question was ready on Bo's lips, but before she could ask, he answered._

 _"I haven't seen her in years, centuries, actually, but I know she gave birth to a daughter, and then put the baby in hiding."_

 _He eyes were hooded with something Bo couldn't interpret. "I've been looking for you ever since I was told you'd been born."_

 _Bo wasn't sure what to say to that._

 _"I'm grateful Lauren found you."_

 _Her hatred returned, and was a simple distraction. "She can get fucked. She just wants to use me for her research."_

 _Trick's words were measure and cool at Bo's outburst. "Dr. Lewis is a brilliant resource to the Fae, and has saved us all more than once. I can understand why you resent her, but she has done you a great service."_

 _"By locking me up like a lab rat?"_

 _"By saving you from a Dark Fae inquisitor's chair. There are more direct and excruciatingly painful ways to get you to talk, Ysabeau."_

 _Bo leaned against the chair, shaking with powerlessness and frustration, and still reeling from the sound of what must have been her given name. "I can't tell them what I don't know!"_

 _"Then be grateful you're not in the custody of those who won't take no for an answer."_

 _It was like he didn't hear a word she was saying and had missed the point entirely. "I don't want anything to do with her!"_

 _He looked at her for a long time. "Then I'll see if someone else can guide you, but you must cooperate." His look turned imploring. "We - I want to help you, Ysabeau. You belong here, and the path before you is not as bleak as you seem to think."_

 _Bo didn't believe that, but she did want answers and her gut was telling her this one man was the key. A deal was struck between them - she would meet with any doctor that wasn't Lauren, and Trick would answer her questions._

 _True to his word, Trick had arranged for another doctor to meet with Bo and to talk with her about how she could learn to feed without killing._

 _And every evening, Trick had visited her to share his history, and tell her about the world of the Fae, about where she'd really come from._

Bo squeezed through two patrons to reach the bar, and saw a familiar figure out of the corner of her eye.

"What's the special tonight, Bo-Bo?" Kenzi strolled in like she owned the place and took up her new favorite perch right next to Bo's serving station.

Over the last couple of weeks, Kenzi had started showing up more often during Bo's shifts. Bo enjoyed her company, though she hadn't told Kenzi so. It was nice having someone around who wasn't Fae and who shared Bo's views about how weird this world was.

Bo made a rude noise. "What does it matter? You're only going to drink the vodka or the Buckthorn - and on my tab, no doubt." She waved at the bartender to catch his attention, and then tossed her head in Kenzi's direction with a roll of her eyes. He nodded, bemused, but Bo had a lot of respect for the art of the hustle and Kenzi reminded Bo of her rougher days on the streets. Maybe karma was a real thing - if so, it couldn't hurt to pay things forward.

Kenzi didn't bother to deny the accusation. "A girl's gotta get it while she can. And you should know. You're certainly getting enough play around here."

And Bo couldn't deny the truth of that. In less than six months, she'd gone from hunting prey in dark clubs and alleys to having Fae of all kinds throw themselves at her feet. The new phone number in her pocket was one of a half dozen she'd been given tonight alone.

Now that she could feed without killing, the world was her smorgasbord, and there were plenty of willing souls offering themselves on silver platters.

She was surprised at how quickly this had become the new normal.

 _The new doctor Trick had found was kind but business-like. He never visited her quarters, instead meeting her in his informal office in the compound, and treated her like a patient who needed help but not condescension. He never asked where she was from or how she came to be in his office._

 _It was odd, but reassuring, and frankly, Bo was too exhausted and starved at this point to keep fighting. She relented, deciding that - at the very least - she'd be strong enough to plan escape._

 _Within a day, he'd collected enough information to suggest a feeding schedule. While unsettling, the conversations were open and honest. The first step of the plan was to get her into a healthier condition by separating sexual relations from feeding as she worked on learning control. Then, they'd determine her health baseline, and work to find out what the most optimal feeding frequency was to maintain peak condition._

 _It was clinical, and he was professional, but warm and encouraging. The chi didn't taste as good without sex, but it kept her alive._

 _Within a week, he worked with her to determine her treatment plans, explained what tests were needed and why, and pledged not to implement anything she hadn't agreed to and signed off beforehand._

 _It was several weeks before Bo realized that the treatment plans were all co-signed with the initials "LL"._

The noise level in the Dal went up a couple of decibels. Bo had to shout drink orders to the bartender, and he had to lean over the bar to hear her.

"How can you stand living here?" Kenzi slammed another empty shot glass on the worn wood of the bar.

Bo didn't want to say anything about living rent-free for fear of having to explain why. "Well, if I get hammered, I don't have far to stumble."

There were several apartments above the Dal, and Bo had lived in one of them ever since she'd left the compound two months before. It wasn't fancy, but it was the nicest place she'd lived in years.

"Christ, woman, how much liquor would it take to get you hammered? You're all so fucking sturdy, I'm starting to wonder if you're Russian." Kenzi's words were starting to slur together. "Though none of you could drink me under the table."

Bo laughed. She wasn't one for drinking much. Too many bad memories, though many had eased thanks to treatment.

 _Not long after her first meeting with Trick, he convinced her to see a Light Fae therapist. Bo had thought he was insane - therapy wasn't going to make her any less of a murderer, but he had been persistent and she'd given in._

 _Eric the ogre walked beside her, guiding her to an office on the far side of the compound. She was still under guard, but Eric had stopped having his brother with the taser, follow them around._

 _"You don't need to be so nervous, Bo." Eric was always kind. "It'll be fine."_

 _"I'm not nervous." Bo said. She was lying, and they both knew it._

 _Eric tried to contain his laughter. "Sure, sure."_

 _Their relationship had changed from guard and captive to one of almost painful professional politeness. Eric had offered his service to her several times, and though the medical staff had been creative in structuring her feeds - and Bo wondered whose idea it had been to strap her down at first while she fed - they'd ultimately been successful._

 _She and Eric hadn't had sex, but Bo had fed well just the same. If she weren't here against her will, she might think they were becoming friendly._

 _The door to the therapist's office was ajar in welcome, and Bo poked her head in._

 _"Come on in, Bo," he said with a touch of a Spanish accent. He stepped out from behind his desk and gestured as he walked toward two chairs in front of a fireplace. "Join me."_

 _Tall and lean, with dark hair and Mediterranean features, he was dressed in dated but expensive tailored clothes. "I'm Dr. Morales. Please feel free to call me Ernesto."_

 _Bo sat down, but didn't lean back. She wasn't relaxed, didn't know what to expect, and wasn't entirely sure that she was going to stick around. "I thought I'd have to lie on a couch."_

 _He laughed. "A common misconception." His smile wrinkled the corners of his dark eyes. "And I bet it isn't the only one you might have. Let me tell you a little bit more about me, and I think you'll get an idea of how this works."_

 _Ernesto was a shame-eater, and as far as he was concerned, their working relationship would be mutually beneficial._

 _As Bo talked about how she'd come to be where she was, he asked about her history and the events that brought her to the colony. With each story she told, she felt the agony as if it were happening all over again, but then the pain would ease and her feelings about herself would shift._

 _It was an act of self-forgiveness for each transgression._

 _It changed nothing. People were still dead, and Bo regretted every single one, but Bo had come to recognize that she'd done the best she could with what she had at the time - which wasn't much. The endless self-berating wasn't helping her move forward, and he helped her see that it was time to find a new path for her life._

 _After an hour, she was completely drained but somehow lighter in spirit. She couldn't go back and change anything. She could only work harder to make sure that those mistakes were never repeated in the future._

 _When Bo walked out the office after that first of several subsequent sessions, Eric was sitting in a nearby chair reading a thick hardcover. He stood as she walked closer._

 _"You waited for me?" Bo said. His shift had ended before he'd guided her here, and Bo had been expecting his replacement, but she was surprised to discover she was happy to see him._

 _"I would have been here anyway, but I promised someone I'd make sure you were ok."_

 _Bo thought it might have been Trick, but then she realized that if the Ash had told Eric to stay, Eric would have said so._

 _Eric had promised someone else, and Bo had her suspicions about who that might be._

"How'd it go with that tall stack of man-candy you hooked up with last weekend? Bow chicka bow wow!" Kenzi whooped and in the process, spilled some vodka on the floor. "He was a little too pretty but he walked like he might have some talent."

Bo rolled her eyes. "It went fine." She'd had a good time with Ryan, but didn't think she'd see him again.

Kenzi looked around the bar, though Bo could tell she wasn't focusing on anything well. "I don't see him around tonight."

Bo shook her head. "And you won't. Turns out he's Dark Fae." She watched Kenzi's mouth fall open in shock. The Dal Riata was Light Fae territory, though there were certain times when both sides could visit the space.

"No way!" Kenzi set her glass half on a coaster on the bar. "You fucked a Dark Fae pretty boy? Is that even allowed?"

Bo shrugged. "Probably not, but I'm not exactly playing by all the rules."

It was true. While Bo now understood the meaning and importance of the One Rule, she was still dancing around the rest of the rules she'd been told.

When asked to choose a side, Bo had declined and said that she simply didn't know enough yet to make a decision. The Morrigan had argued that was an unacceptable option, but Trick had backed her, though probably out of fear that she'd choose the Dark if pushed.

The result was that Bo was unaligned for now. She was free. Sort of.

 _By the end of the second month, they'd stopped locking the door._

 _One night, Trick looked right through her as if taking her measure again, then told her that if she would commit to finishing out the three month sentence of her own volition, she would be extended new freedoms within the Light Fae Compound._

 _Bo asked what that meant._

 _"A blood oath is the most serious commitment our people can make. Your word has value, and if you break that oath, the punishment is death." Trick paused, and let the weight of his words fills the room. "Do you give your blood oath to finish what you've started?"_

 _Bo stared at him, and wondered what she was giving up. It didn't really change anything. She was still stuck here._

 _What choice did she have?_

 _Then again, how wrong had she been about what her life could be? For the last couple of weeks, "stuck" had actually changed her life for the better. She wasn't hustling feeds on the streets. She wasn't crashed in some crackhouse, worried about being discovered. Though she was in jail of a sort, it was a velvet-covered one with gourmet meals and hot water. And she wasn't alone in the world anymore, even if her only family was a secretive old man who often wouldn't answer her direct questions._

 _She had to admit that she was making progress._

 _"Yes, I do." Bo thought she'd feel trapped by such a promise, but instead, she felt a sort of pride. She wanted to be the kind of person who followed through once she said she'd do something, and this was her chance._

 _Trick had dismissed the guard, and told her from that point forward, she was in the compound under her own recognizance. She wondered what Lauren would think, then decided that perhaps Dr. Lewis should be knocked down a couple of pegs. Trick clearly outranked her, and Bo took vindictive pleasure in having someone other than Lauren call the shots for a change._

 _She found out later that it had been Lauren's idea._

At some point, Bo would be asked to choose a side, but that day was not today.

Bo felt secure in some ways for the first time in her life. People knew who and what she was, and she was viewed as something new and exciting. She hadn't needed to hunt since she left the compound. Every night that she wanted one - and lately, she didn't - she had a new lover more than willing to take her to bed.

She never took them to her place, and once the sex was over, she didn't stay.

They all seemed to want her to be some sex goddess or BDSM dominatrix all day every day. It had been fun at first - hot, even, but now it was boring. More than boring, it was...

It was sad. It made her feel sad. None of her bedmates could see past her biology. Once the orgasms were out of the way, once they'd experienced a feed first-hand, they either lost interest and stopped returning her calls, or wanted to level up to some new kinky fantasy they'd devised. They wanted to fuck her, but they didn't _see_ her.

Though Bo had bedded Fae of all kinds and fed well, she had not, however, taken a single human lover - nor fed from one - since leaving the compound.

 _The experiment had been too formal for Bo, but she didn't get to make the rules anymore. Set in one of the labs, with all kinds of electrodes and probes attached to her and her human quarry, she'd been clad in yet another hospital gown, while he'd been wearing flannel pajama pants._

 _He'd seemed relaxed, and Bo hadn't smelled any nervousness on him. She'd wished she'd had his confidence._

 _"Not exactly how I like to get down," he'd said with a charming smile, and it was obvious he was trying to get her to relax._

 _"You and me both," Bo had said in kind._

 _He was a big man with broad shoulders, well-defined muscles and narrow hips, and when he'd grasped her waist with a firm yet gentle touch, Bo was ready._

 _He tasted sweet, like a fresh, young white wine in early summer, and his growing arousal only made him taste sweeter. So good, so ripe - she drank deeply._

 _Someone spoke nearby, tone urgent, but she wasn't finished yet. Someone pulled on her arms, but she was stronger - strong enough to hold him up when he fell. His flavor changed, but it was still fine though it was fading, and she wanted every little bit of that delicious chi on her tongue -_

 _Her vision went red, every muscle froze, and she dropped him as she herself was shocked to the floor._

 _By the time the effects of the taser wore off, he was dead, and she screamed at her failure._

 _The staff had tried to calm her down, but it didn't help. She was inconsolable. For two days, she stayed in her bed in her quarters. She didn't eat and turned away any offers to feed._

 _The sound of the door opening didn't affect her, but the scent that reached her heightened senses seconds later made her open her eyes. though she didn't otherwise move._

 _Bo hadn't seen or spoken to Lauren in weeks._

 _She felt the stir of someone sitting on the bed, and prayed she wasn't about to hear another litany of it-wasn't-her-fault-that-she-couldn't-help-it when it damned sure was and she damned sure could._

 _"Evan Flannerty was 38 years old."_

 _Bo felt something in her chest tighten, and tears blurred her vision, but she didn't roll over._

 _"He was born and raised in the world of the Fae, and was granted leave to attend university. He moved to this colony several years ago after completing several advanced degrees. He pledged service to the Light Fae and, due to his credentials, worked in the laboratories here as a researcher."_

 _Bo listened. Though the tears came so quickly she couldn't blink them away, she craved every word. So many times she'd fed and killed with no idea who her victims were._

 _She didn't want to kill, she didn't want to be a murderer, and some part of her ached to know about them - the normal people with normal lives who walked through this world with love and hope and dreams - all things Bo didn't have in her own life, but wished she did._

 _"He liked outlaw country music and cheap domestic beer, and loved to dance. When he asked for time off, it was always to go camping with some friends of his who were wood nymphs. He would sing along to his music collection late at night in the labs when he thought he was alone."_

 _Bo remembered his kind brown eyes and easy smile, and could picture him dancing a two-step on a honky-tonk floor. She sniffled, but didn't wipe the tears away._

 _"He was a brilliant scientist, and he believed as I do," Lauren said. "That you can learn control, and that you can have a full life. He volunteered to help you and knew exactly what the risks were. He was the one who studied the results of every feed that was measured, and knew you were ready to try to feed from a human, though he knew that you might not succeed."_

 _Lauren stood, and Bo heard her take a deep breath._

 _"He would want you to keep trying."_

 _Bo thought that Lauren would take the opportunity to chime in with her own views on the matter. Bo was surprised to discover that she wouldn't mind hearing what Lauren had to say._

 _Instead, all she heard was the door closing._

Kenzi prattled on about some exchange between Dyson and his partner Hale, but Bo wasn't really listening. She was thinking about how this new life of hers felt a little too tight, too restrictive. About how it was time to make another change.

It was time for her to leave.

Now that she knew who she was, now that she knew how to feed without killing, now that she knew how to find more of her kind, there was nothing really for her here.

Trick was family, but he was still a distant, powerful man with a whole world of responsibilities that Bo wanted no part of.

They met often for private suppers at the compound, and Trick was clear about his role as the Ash. He didn't want to be publicly known for showing any favoritism towards Bo, and suggested that they not broadcast that they were relatives, but he did want her to have everything she needed.

Eventually, though, he would want her to choose the Light Fae, and she wasn't sure that she could. Even worse, he might want her to play a more significant role in the world of the Fae, and she didn't want that. Becoming Dark Fae wasn't an option either, so it was best to not have to make the choice at all.

She knew people now, but they weren't her friends. She was still alone, and it was time for her to move on.

"Wonder what the Doc's doing here," Kenzi said.

Bo dropped a glass.

Several people within earshot started clapping while a few others shouted "Opa!" into the melee. She felt herself blush as she watched Lauren weaving in slow, measured steps through the crowd across the room.

"Idiots! It's not a plate!" Kenzi yelled, and Bo was grateful for the distraction while she hurried off to fetch a broom.

She wasn't sure what it was about Lauren that still got to her. Bo had to admit that she didn't really hate the woman anymore, but something indescribable had replaced it.

 _The door to her chambers was open. There wasn't much to pack - the few clothes she hadn't thrown out, a few books Trick had suggested she take with her -_

 _A knock on the door got her attention._

 _Lauren cleared her throat as she stood just across the threshold. "May I come in?"_

 _Bo laughed, but it wasn't a friendly sound. "That's rich, coming from you." Lauren had never asked her opinion about anything, and sure hadn't listened when it was given anyway._

 _Lauren frowned and stared at her own feet. "I suppose that's true."_

 _When she didn't leave, Bo found herself wondering what Lauren wanted. She went back to collecting her things, overcome with the fear that Lauren might have the power to lock that door once again._

 _"You can come in, but I'm leaving in minute."_

 _"That's actually why I'm here." Lauren walked to within arms reach and stretched out a hand. "I thought you might want these."_

 _Bo was shocked to see the keys to her car._

 _"The tank's full," Lauren said, wiping her hands on her lab coat. "I figured that was the least we could do, all things considered."_

 _"Yeah," Bo said, pocketing the key and trying to hide her relief. "The very least." She wasn't sure why she kept digging at this woman. Lauren had left her alone, as requested, though she had guided her treatment, and now had somehow made arrangements to save Bo's car. A car whose existence no one had acknowledged for months, probably for fear that Bo would try to leave._

 _Yet Lauren had come here, where she was not welcome, to give Bo back the heart of what Bo truly wanted - her freedom._

 _Bo didn't say another word._

 _Lauren shifted her weight. "Well," she said, but didn't say anything else._

 _Bo loaded the last few books into the box and tossed her jacket over the top. She glanced at Lauren, but there was something unreadable in her eyes, and Bo didn't want to stick around to figure it out._

 _She wanted out of here._

 _Bo walked towards the door._

 _"Good luck, Bo," Lauren said. "I hope things...go well for you. You deserve it."_

 _Bo glanced back once before she left, and pretended she didn't see the shine in Lauren's downcast eyes._

 _Moments later, she asked around and got directions to the compound's garage. By the time she got there, she was itching with the need to leave, but stopped in surprise the moment her old yellow Camaro came into view._

 _Buffed and waxed to a shine, every dent, scuff and paint chip had been repaired. New tires graced the frame and the vinyl top had been replaced._

 _Like her life, it was renewed._

Bo finished sweeping up the glass shards while Kenzi babbled about some good deed Lauren had performed. Everyone, or at least it seemed like it to Bo, had a story about how they had been helped or saved by "the human doctor". She was a legend in a world of super-human abilities, even though she didn't have any herself.

Bo dumped the dustpan in a nearby bin, and stashed it along with the broom in a corner near the end of the bar, but didn't go back to work right away.

Instead, she leaned against the doorjamb, and stared at the only person in the room worthy of her attention.

Bo's world and Lauren's didn't intersect now that Bo wasn't in the compound. Now that she knew more about Lauren, Bo realized that the one night they'd met at the rave had been completely out of character for Lauren.

Bo thought about that night a lot, about the way Lauren had been playful yet seductive, open yet mysterious. She wanted to know _that_ Lauren, not the cool, capable doctor everyone described.

Across the room, Lauren smiled as she continued her conversation with someone Bo didn't recognize. The warm, genuine expression brightened Lauren's face.

Bo knew people were waiting for their drinks, but she wanted to look at Lauren one more time.

Dressed casually in dark jeans, boots and a closed, loose brown leather jacket, Lauren stood at the end of the bar, gesturing with animation as she spoke. Her hair fell straight across her shoulders and back, and she tossed her head to move it when a few strands fell in front of her face.

She never once looked in Bo's direction. Bo was disappointed Lauren's smile wasn't directed at her, then irritated at herself for caring.

Lauren lifted two shot glasses of whiskey and handed one to her companion. After a toast, Lauren tossed it back like a pro then licked her lips in appreciation.

In that moment, Bo decided to stop lying to herself. Bo could still remember how those lips tasted. Her feelings about Lauren weren't as indefinable as she pretended. Confusion, yes. Curiosity, definitely. Frustration, abso-fucking-lutely. But not hatred, not anymore.

Mostly, Lauren filled her with a sense of wonder.

Against a tide of resistance that included uber-human powers greater than herself, as well as a bitter and uncooperative damned-near-feral untrained succubus, Lauren had done everything she could to make sure that no matter what Bo might have said or done, Bo would get what she _needed_ \- a path forward.

Lauren had changed Bo's entire life. In return, she had received Bo's contempt, yet she herself never lashed out. She was at once the ideal and the unattainable - giving to a fault, intelligent way beyond the average, sexy yet graceful and self-possessed, driven and devoted. In the quiet moments when Bo would allow it, the memory of that one night, those few moments between the dance and the downward spiral of Bo's appetites, had given Bo hope that one day she might have someone like that in her life.

But Lauren was also human, which dashed that hope against the rocks.

Across the room, Lauren turned her back and headed for the private office on the other side of the pub. In a moment, she was no longer visible.

Bo was sorry to see her go.

The life Bo had dreamt for herself was never going to be, and there would never be someone like Lauren by her side. She was a succubus, she was Fae, and no one would want to live a life with her that was defined by those things.

Yet for all she couldn't have, and though her heart ached, Bo knew her life was completely different now. All because of one Dr. Lauren Lewis.

Kenzi hollered at the bartender for another shot, and Bo sighed as she turned her head back to her work. She had a couple more hours of this shift and then she could go upstairs to her small apartment and get some sleep. Soon enough, Bo could plan the next phase of her life out of the colony.

Yet before she left town, Bo had one thing she must do. Now wasn't the place or time, but soon. She wasn't sure it was a good idea, but if she didn't do it, she thought she might regret it forever.

###

 ** _TBC. Two to go. ~VB517_**


	12. Chapter 12

**CHAPTER 12**

Lauren Lewis was accustomed to not getting what she wanted.

She'd wanted a little sister, but her parents had provided a brother instead. She'd wanted to attend Harvard Medical School and become a brain surgeon, but ended up at Yale University School of Medicine with advanced degrees in biomedical science.

She'd wanted a house in the suburbs, two point five kids and a dog, but the only woman she'd ever loved enough to consider marrying, a photographer named Nadia, had left her without looking back when Lauren had accepted a research grant that required a year's residency in the Congo.

Lauren had wanted to save the world, but was barely able to save herself, and right now -

"Dr. L! Over here!" Sam waved from the far end of the bar, all the way down from the serving station where Lauren was steadfastly _not_ looking.

Well, right now, she wanted a woman who wouldn't even look at her.

Lauren tipped her head in Dyson's direction as she maneuvered past the pool table in the Dal where he was currently losing to Hale. He smiled back, no doubt relieved that she was out of the labs for once.

She hadn't been getting out much.

Sam, one of her colleagues from the labs, held up a glass in welcome. "I ordered us a couple of bourbons to celebrate."

Lauren would have preferred scotch.

"Stop looking so maudlin! You're making me sad, and I'm trying to celebrate here."

Sam laughed at her expense, but she knew he meant no harm. They'd worked together for almost two years now, and he was always trying to pull her out of whatever pensive state she was in. She toasted his latest accomplishment - the successful identification of a rare virus afflicting one of the elders - and tossed the bourbon back with a wince.

"How are things going with the council?" Sam shouted to be heard over the din.

Lauren thought that he probably didn't want to know the finer details and was just making conversation. "Business as usual," she answered, though she stopped herself from saying more. The Dal Riata wasn't the place to talk about council business. There were too many interested ears.

Across Sam's shoulder, Lauren saw a familiar figure at the end of the bar and forced herself to merely glance at Bo. She hadn't seen Bo in weeks, though she thought about her all the time.

Bo looked like any other overworked barmaid on a Saturday night, but otherwise fantastic with no signs of her previous poor health. Lauren noticed Kenzi sitting on a stool nearby and that she and Bo were familiar with one another. It pleased her that Bo had made a friend. She could only imagine how lonely Bo's life had been before.

When Bo walked out of sight, Lauren looked more directly and saw that Kenzi was flashing a universal peace sign at her with one hand. Lauren smiled in response, and then watched Kenzi toss back another shot of what was no doubt the Dal's finest vodka. Kenzi's constitution was legendary.

"How about another round?" Sam asked.

"Already? Christ, Sam - you trying to get me drunk?"

"Nah, I just want to see you loosen up. You're always wound pretty tight, but lately, you seem tenser than usual."

Lauren wasn't sure what to make of that, but didn't want to talk about it with Sam. She liked the man, and enjoyed working with him, but he wasn't a confidante.

"Fine," she said. "But this time, we're drinking something else."

She ordered a couple of Irish whiskeys and toasted their health. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched Bo work her way through the crowd.

Lauren couldn't help it. Bo was a perfect specimen of womanhood, and Lauren wished that she didn't know - scientifically, of course - how much sex and chi it would take to make Bo look as full and lush and _alive_ as she did as she walked around the room. The boots Bo wore just made her stride that much more enticing, and looking at her every curve made Lauren's hands itch.

Now Bo was smiling at some lanky idiot who was trying to flirt even though he didn't have a chance in hell. Lauren ached to have that smile directed at her. Just looking at Bo made Lauren's heart rate increase.

"You gonna stare at her all night, or go say hello?"

Caught, Lauren looked down and prayed she didn't blush.

"I'm not trying to give you a hard time, Lauren, but I've never seen you look at anyone like that." Sam laughed. "I can't even disagree. She isn't my type, but I can say that she's easy on the eyes."

Lauren sighed. It had been years since she'd wanted anyone half as much as she wanted Bo, but there was no way she'd reach out now.

Bo had made it clear that she wanted nothing to do with Lauren.

 _"It was her only condition, and I gave my oath that I'd honor it." Trick frowned, unhappy._

 _The two of them stood alone in Lauren's primary laboratory in the Light Fae compound. Mid-morning sunlight streamed through the open door to the hall and the large windows beyond, but Lauren felt cold._

 _She sighed, and clasped her hands behind her back. "I'd ask why, but I already know."_

 _The silence between them wasn't comfortable._

 _"I have two requests of my own," she said finally._

 _Trick nodded, though he looked wary._

 _"I want to oversee all aspects of her care, even if she's talking to another doctor. There could be dire consequences if this is handled poorly, Trick."_

 _Trick squinted at her, as if trying to see into her thoughts. "I'll allow it, since it still honors her request. What else?"_

 _Lauren took a deep breath and stepped closer. "Tell her the truth, Trick. Whatever she asks you, tell her all of the truth, or at least as much as you can without betraying any confidences."_

 _The Ash, a king in his own right though few knew, clearly wasn't pleased at being given orders, but nodded. "I don't see why that's your concern, but I'll be as honest with her as I can be, all things considered."_

 _She bowed her head, chastised but resolute. "She's waited long enough for answers. I think she's due as many as you'll give her."_

Lauren turned to face the bar, and tried to push her hyperawareness of Bo from her mind. She wanted things to be different, but the wanting wouldn't change anything. "One more, on me, but this time we're drinking scotch."

XX - XX - XX - XX - XX

"I don't think I've ever seen you truly tipsy, Dr. Lewis." Dyson wasn't laughing, but his wide smile was a clear indication of his good humor.

"Shut up and drive, wolf." Lauren didn't want to hear his shit right now.

"I also couldn't help noticing you noticing someone else." He smirked at her. "A lot."

She really didn't want to talk about this again. Fuck, could anyone please talk about anything besides Bo Fucking Dennis tonight? After she'd decided to stop looking at the woman, Lauren had noticed that everyone else in the entire pub was staring at Bo.

She'd grown tired of watching everyone look where she was trying _not_ to look and had dragged Sam to the back room. They'd had another round of whiskey, and Lauren had realized at that point that she'd made a rather large tactical error. Hence the need for chauffeuring by one nosy ancient changeling.

"What is it about her, Lauren?" Dyson didn't seem irritated, only perplexed. "I mean, sure, she's hot, but that doesn't usually matter to you."

Lauren tilted her head back against the seat and closed her eyes. The gentle motion of the car combined with the numbing effects of the alcohol lulled her into a surprisingly welcome sensation of

utter relaxation. It reminded her of the few times she'd been stoned during her university days.

She didn't want to answer Dyson, but couldn't help thinking about what he'd asked.

 _Lauren had missed the turn at the end of the block the first time, but finally found the dilapidated house where Bo had held her captive. Against his wishes, she'd left Eric outside while she went in to pick up a few of Bo's personal items._

 _Things weren't going well at the compound, and Bo wasn't feeding. Bo wasn't doing much except cursing out anyone who came within earshot, so Lauren was willing to try almost anything to get through to her - even if it meant coming back to this place._

 _She unlocked the padlock Dyson had put on the door at her suggestion. She'd wanted to keep any other squatters out, though she hadn't been able to explain why. Pale late morning light from outside made the interior dingy, and Lauren stepped gingerly across the floor._

 _Now, without the weight of residual sickness after Bo's attack, or the pull of escape from Bo's captivity, Lauren looked with new eyes on the evidence of Bo's life - if that's what it could be called. It wasn't just the filth, the grime or the smell. It was the pervasive air of desperation, of desolation, of isolation. And if what Lauren thought was true was the actual nature of Bo's world, Bo had lived this way for years - perhaps her entire adult life._

 _Lauren blinked away tears, and wondered how Bo had stayed sane._

Now, the sound of windshield wipers made Lauren open her eyes. She shifted her head to one side, and looked out into the night.

Lauren wanted to say that she thought Bo was beautiful, and courageous, and strong. She wanted to say that she'd seen where and how Bo had lived, and that it had torn a hole in her heart that she wasn't sure how to mend. She wanted to say that she'd never been attracted to anyone like she was attracted to Bo, but that it wasn't sexual. Or, at least, it wasn't _only_ sexual.

She wanted to say all of this, but not to Dyson.

Lauren stared at the window, watching the city lights streak in the rain, and considered his original question.

What was it about Bo that so captivated her?

"I don't know," she lied.

XX - XX - XX - XX - XX

A few days later, Lauren sat in her private office near her laboratory, reading over the test results of evidence from one of Dyson's police cases. It was inconclusive, and Lauren thought she'd better order a set of secondary tests.

"Dr. Lewis?" A calm female voice spoke from the door.

"Hmm?" Lauren looked up from the report in her hands to see one of her technicians, a fair-haired harpy named Lydia, leaning through her office door.

"You've got a visitor." Lydia didn't look suspicious or worried. "Is now a good time?"

Lauren frowned in confusion. She didn't have any appointments scheduled this late in the afternoon. The Ash would have summoned her to his chambers, and Dyson or Kenzi would have walked in unannounced. She closed the folder holding the report and leaned back in her chair.

"Yes, now's fine."

The technician disappeared. Lauren heard the sound of feminine boot heels getting closer and wondered why she couldn't catch her breath.

In another moment, the mystery was solved. Bo walked through the door, looking everywhere but at Lauren until Lauren stood up in surprise.

"Bo."

Bo tucked her hands in her jacket pockets. "Hi." She sounded cautious, or maybe uncertain. Dressed in mostly black, except for the low-cut teal tank under her leather jacket, Bo looked spectacular and in perfect health, but her stance looked as if she might take off right out the door she'd just walked through.

"Hi," Lauren said when Bo didn't say anything else. She wanted to move closer, but kept herself behind the desk.

Bo glanced at Lauren, looked away, then back again. She shifted her weight as if uncomfortable but Lauren could sense that Bo wanted to communicate something, though she couldn't imagine what. She didn't think Bo would come to her for medical advice, not after everything that had passed between them, but maybe -

"Is there something wrong, Bo?" Lauren tried to keep her tone calm, worried that she might scare Bo off.

Bo shook her head quickly. "No. No, nothing's wrong." She pressed her lips into a line before speaking again. "I'm fine. Everything's fine."

"Good," Lauren said. She clenched her hands into fists in her pockets, willing them to keep to themselves instead of reaching out to Bo like she wanted, to check for herself that Bo was okay.

They stared at each other.

"Is there something you need help with, or..." Lauren wasn't sure what she could to do help, but she was willing to try. At this point, short of betraying her oaths or the council, she wondered what she wouldn't do to help Bo.

Bo sighed and pulled her hands out of her pockets, but then started wringing them together in front of herself. "No, I don't need your help. I, just, um..."

Lauren forced herself not to speak, mostly from fear that if she said one more word, Bo wouldn't speak again and would leave. Bo seemed that nervous.

The silence dragged on, but Lauren couldn't look away from the intense look on Bo's face. Bo didn't seem angry, but something serious brewed in her eyes.

Lauren couldn't take it.

"I guess I owe you - "

"I wanted to tell you -"

They started speaking the same instant, and stopped at the same time.

Lauren blushed, and tilted her head to the side in apology. "Sorry. Please, go ahead."

Bo took a deep breath to speak, but then someone walked past in the hall where Lauren couldn't see. Bo offered a small, tense smile to whomever it was, watching them until they were gone. Then she looked at the floor.

Lauren hoped that didn't mean Bo would give up. She thought she might combust if Bo walked out now without saying whatever she'd come to say.

Bo bit her lower lip, then looked back at Lauren. "Do you mind if I close the door?"

"No! No, not at all." Lauren waved an arm in the direction of the door, then tucked her hand back into her lab coat pocket as Bo shut the door. Lauren then found herself staring across her desk into Bo's eyes.

"Look, I just -" Bo didn't seem to know where to start. "I guess..." She sighed, turned back to Lauren began to speak again.

This time, Lauren could see the intensity of truth in her eyes.

"When you - or I -" She faltered then tried again. "When you and I...found each other...I'd spent years - so many years - not having any real idea of who or what I was. Of what I am."

Lauren nodded, but didn't speak.

Bo continued. "I'd wanted answers and didn't know how to get them. What little I found out on my own wasn't nearly enough, and I was headed for a place that was -"

She paused, as if to see if her words were being understood.

"I was headed for somewhere not good. And then I met you."

Lauren didn't know if that was how she herself would describe the night they'd met, but didn't think this was the time to nitpick about word choice.

"And while things got crazy really fast, I wanted to apologize -"

"Please don't." Lauren held up a hand. If they started apologizing to each other now... "I just mean that I understand, and you don't have to apologize to me."

Bo didn't look happy at that.

"Anyway," Bo said. "I do know this. I don't have to kill anymore. No one else will die because of me." She blinked away a sudden shine in her eyes. "Before we...met...I didn't even know that the life I have now could...be. Even though it's only been a short time, everything is just so different for me, and..."

Bo took another step closer, though she was still further away than Lauren would have liked. "I can't say I understand why things went down the way they did. And I can't- " Bo looked genuinely sorry. "I can't thank you, Lauren. Not when this whole thing put me through hell, even if it was a lesser hell than the life I was living before."

Lauren didn't want Bo's gratitude, and wanted to tell Bo that she wasn't looking for anything of the sort, but some instinct told her she wasn't supposed to say anything. Not yet.

"I can't thank you," Bo said, her voice stronger than before. "But I can say that you were right. My life didn't have to be the way it was, and now it isn't, and that's because of you."

Lauren felt some tension lessen in her shoulders, and blinked away tears.

"You were right, and I promise." Bo took one step closer. "I promise you, that I will never, ever forget you, no matter how long I live."

And suddenly Lauren understood. She looked at Bo, praying that her understanding was wrong, but she could see it in Bo's eyes. She knew now what this was about, and she felt something inside her crack with the knowledge.

"You're leaving."

Bo's lack of response was a clear verification that Lauren was right.

Bo looked wary. "You can't stop me." She looked away for a moment, and tilted her head. "I mean, we both know you could find some way to lock me up again, but I'm hoping you won't now that things are different."

"I won't." Lauren was surprised to discover that she meant it. Even if Bo did something terrible or drastic, not that Lauren thought she would, Lauren didn't think she had it in her to lock Bo up again. She wasn't even sure she could turn Bo over to the council. "And I guess I don't have the right to ask why." They weren't, after all, friends. "But I do want to. Ask, I mean."

Bo turned away, and walked over to look out the large window in Lauren's office. She stared down at the courtyard below as she spoke. "I don't...fit...here. I mean, I know I'm Fae and all, but these aren't my people."

Lauren frowned, since she knew that wasn't exactly true. "But, you do have people. You have family here." She spoke softly, ever careful of her words being overheard by the wrong people.

Bo made a scoffing sound. "That may be, but I think said family is a little more interested in their own political agenda than my quality of life."

Lauren wasn't sure how to argue with that, and didn't think it was her place to do so. She'd only made the connection between the Ash and this lone, untrained succubus. It wasn't Lauren's job to maintain that connection - that was between Bo and Trick.

"I see," Lauren said, though she really didn't.

"Anyway," Bo said. "Thanks for seeing me." And the silence stretched out between them again. Bo had clearly said what she'd come to say, and there was nothing Lauren could do to convince Bo that staying might be a good idea. Bo had learned enough to survive without killing, knew who she was and knew about the Fae. She would honor the One Rule, and was certainly capable of living a better life now that she had more choices.

But she was leaving. Bo was going to walk out that door, and might disappear in a matter of days if not hours, and there was a solid chance that Lauren might never see her again -

"Have dinner with me." Lauren surprised herself with how quickly she blurted out the words.

Bo stared at Lauren without speaking, and then crooked an eyebrow.

"Just dinner," Lauren clarified, fearing that Bo would think all Lauren wanted was to bed her. Even Lauren had heard the rumors of Bo's popularity of late, of how many Fae had thrown themselves at her.

Bo didn't say anything.

"I've got a flat -" Lauren mentally kicked herself for being so flustered. She could argue in the council for hours against elders ten times her age, but she couldn't string a sentence together around one succubus. "I live here in the compound most of the time, but I have a flat downtown for when I need to get away from all things Fae." She took a deep breath and let the weight of what she truly wanted speak through her words. "Have dinner with me."

It was mostly true. The building where she had a small apartment was under surveillance by Trick's staff, but it was non-intrusive and Lauren understood why it was necessary. Most of the time, she forgot why the lobby was staffed at all hours, and why building access was limited.

"Call it neutral space, in a way." Lauren took a deep breath, and stepped out from behind her desk. "Before you go, can we have one conversation that isn't weighted by all the things that have happened?" Bo looked wary again, but Lauren could tell she was at least considering the idea. "No expectations. No Fae politics. Just one mediocre meal."

A small smile appeared. "Mediocre? Way to close the deal."

"I know how to make only two dishes well, and both are for breakfast. I can, however, make an edible stir fry."

The smile widened. "They don't teach you to cook in medical school?"

Lauren relaxed enough to smile back. "No, at least not at Yale."

Bo stared, and Lauren felt the weight of her consideration. Finally, Bo nodded. "Just dinner."

Lauren nodded back. "Swear on a stack of Gray's."

It took a second for Bo to get the joke. "Okay."

Lauren nodded again. "Okay. Tomorrow night?" She needed at least a day to make sure her apartment was decent for visitors. She hadn't been there in weeks.

Bo didn't say anything, but then nodded again, and Lauren realized that Bo had been planning to leave immediately.

"One more day can't hurt," Bo said. "Tomorrow. What should I bring?"

Lauren sighed with relief, and tried not to let it show. "Just you."

XX - XX - XX - XX - XX

 ** _TBC. One more chapter. ~VB517_**


	13. Chapter 13

**_Author's Note:_** _As promised, here's the endgame. More from me at the end...and thanks for your patience! ~VB517_

 **CHAPTER 13**

The parking space right in front of Lauren's building was too close, so Bo drove around the block twice before she found one more to her liking. Perhaps the precaution wasn't necessary, but she always listened to her gut, and right now it was telling her not to draw attention to whom was visiting the good doctor this evening. Bo's car was practically a strobe light.

A light breeze blew her hair into her face and she brushed it back as she climbed out of the Camaro. She'd worn her hair unconfined tonight, and dressed in her best outfit. The day's heat had been higher than average but now that the sun had set, it was cool enough for her to wear the jacket that was her armor. Bo walked a brisk pace toward the address she'd been given.

What the hell was she doing here?

Six months ago, she wouldn't have even driven through this part of town, much less walked. It was an upscale neighborhood, with a few large houses featuring sprawling yards and decorative driveways. It didn't scream money, but it was certainly a distant world compared to the one where she'd lived for the last decade, and far from the pulse of the street that set the pace of her life for so long. The road was so clean, Bo didn't see so much as a windblown candy wrapper, and she couldn't get a feel for anything here. She wondered if Lauren would understand what she was talking about if she tried to explain it.

Why had she agreed to this dinner? What were they going to talk about? If it were anyone else, sooner rather than later, they'd fall into bed and conversation wouldn't be much of an issue - after half a dozen orgasms, Bo would dress and leave, and that would be that.

She wouldn't mind falling into bed with Lauren, not at all - if it weren't for the fact that Lauren was human, but Lauren had said "just dinner". That meant either a very quiet meal or a lot of conversation. Lauren had already told her the food would be average, so none of it sounded particularly appealing to Bo.

And yet for all her worry about whether this was yet another one of her bad ideas, Bo wasn't going to back out now. The look on Lauren's face when she'd asked her to dinner had sealed the deal, but she had to admit if only to herself that she wanted to see Lauren one more time before she left for good.

Even if it got weird, which it probably would.

The off-white building wasn't old, but it wasn't new either. Six floors high, it was one of a few apartment buildings on the block, though it was more non-descript than the others. The access panel next to the door listed occupants and corresponding intercom buttons.

Bo pressed the button by _L. Lewis._

"Hello?" Lauren said.

"Hey, it's me." That sounded too...familiar. They weren't friends. Bo cleared her throat and spoke again. "It's Bo."

"Come on up. It's 505." The door buzzed and clicked to let Bo in.

XX - XX - XX - XX - XX

Lounge electronica and the scent of ginger flowed through the cracked open door when Bo arrived.

She'd expected a modern, expensively decorated loft. Instead, second-hand furniture and framed old movie posters welcomed her. The walls were painted sienna with a cream trim, and created an irresistible warmth that made the bigger spaces seem intimate. A large plaid patterned throw blanket was folded neatly on the back of the long, worn leather couch, and the coffee table looked like someone had bolted together a few pine 2x6s and called it good.

Bo thought the decor more college thrift chic than Architectural Digest.

She wasn't, however, surprised to see several full bookshelves and stacks of more books and magazines on every available surface. Lauren seemed like the kind of woman who was always reading something.

Except for right now.

"Hi," Lauren said from the kitchen. She stood in front of the stove holding a cutting board, shifting chopped vegetables from the board to a wok over an open flame. "Welcome to my home away from home."

"Thanks." Bo set the bottle of red wine she'd brought on the counter next to stack of cookbooks. "Not too fancy, but I didn't want to come empty-handed."

"You didn't have to, Bo." Lauren smiled, and it took the edge off her words. "But thank you." She stirred the vegetables in the wok with a wooden spatula.

Dressed in faded jeans and a casual button down shirt with the sleeves rolled up past her forearms, Lauren still looked somewhat formal. Was it because she was a doctor that Bo couldn't quite categorize her as relaxed and easygoing? Bo felt like an idiot standing there watching her. "Anything I can do to help?"

Lauren looked at her without speaking, then leaned towards the counter to pull out a drawer. "Corkscrew's in here somewhere, and glasses are in the cabinet next to the frig."

Once the wine was sorted, Bo felt a little less awkward. She took a seat on the stool and sipped from her glass.

"How long have you lived here?'

"Two years this fall." Lauren talked while stirring the wok. "I needed a place away from the compound that was mine. Before that, I stayed in a hotel downtown once in awhile when I wanted to get away, but I decided to find something more permanent."

These last few months were the longest Bo had lived in any one place for years, so the idea of having two places to live was foreign.

"Well, it's nice. Comfy," Bo said.

"Thanks." Lauren offered a shy smile. "You're the first person to see it."

Shocked, Bo let her mouth fall open. "You've never had anyone over?"

"Nope. You're the first. And I haven't cooked for anyone in years, so keep that in mind when you're eating and be kind."

If dinner tasted like it smelled, Lauren didn't have anything to worry about, but Bo was still surprised at Lauren's confession. It made her feel special, yet somehow more nervous."

"So you don't spend much time here, you said?"

Lauren shook her head. "Not much. In addition to my research in the labs, I also provide medical services for the Fae community." She added some spice Bo didn't recognize to the stir-fry. "Add my work with the council, and it doesn't leave a lot of downtime."

"How long have you been on the council?"

"Five years," Lauren said.

Bo couldn't remember where she'd been five years ago, though it was easy to guess. Some mid-sized town, some industrial district, some trash heap where she slept when she wasn't hunting. It wouldn't make for very good small talk, so she didn't mention it.

Still, Lauren's involvement with the elders did raise another question.

"You really think humans will find out about the Fae?"

"Well, let me put it this way," Lauren said, transferring the vegetables from the wok to a serving plate. "The Fae have lived among humans for centuries without public discovery, but that was largely because humans had little chance of noticing their differences."

She tossed some sliced meat into the wok and stepped back from the stove to lean a hip against the counter. "In the last hundred years alone, though, human technology has developed by several orders of magnitude, and I believe that it's only a matter of time before the Fae are discovered - and that word will spread fast enough that the Fae can't contain it."

Bo guessed that was probably true, then decided that was too deep of a rabbit hole for tonight's dinner.

At Lauren's direction, Bo set the table and tried to think of something else to talk about.

"So I thought you said this building was under surveillance?" Bo asked after they'd taken their seats at Lauren's small dinner table. "I didn't see anyone downstairs at the guard desk." She tasted the stir-fry and decided that Lauren hadn't given herself enough credit. It was actually pretty good.

Lauren tilted her head with a self-deprecating wince. "Um, I may have mentioned to the guard that it might be a good idea to take a ten minute break around the time you were scheduled to arrive."

Bo raised an eyebrow. "You that worried about being seen with me?" She wasn't sure what to make of that.

"No! No, not at all!" Lauren said. "I just didn't want him to ask any questions you didn't want to answer."

"Bit of a change for you," Bo said before she could stop herself.

Lauren paused, her hand frozen in mid-air, chopsticks loaded with vegetables. She set them down, looking at her plate at not at Bo.

Now Bo felt guilty, but they couldn't just sit here and pretend that it was a normal meal, or even further still, some kind of date. She didn't like the discomfort on Lauren's face and was pissed off at herself for putting it there, which made the whole affair seem ill conceived.

Bo set down her chopsticks, and leaned back. "Why am I here, Lauren?" She wasn't trying to be rude - well, _more_ rude - but this didn't make any sense. If she didn't want what everybody else seemed to want from Bo, what was she after?

Lauren sighed with apparent resignation, pushed her untouched meal away and picked up her wine glass. "Honestly, Bo, I was hoping to have one conversation where we could just start over, but that may be impossible."

She looked directly at Bo. "I know I did something that you may never forgive. Okay, many somethings," she raised a hand to placate Bo, who had moved to interrupt her. "But one huge something in particular, and while I was doing the best I could with the information I had at the time, maybe we'll never get past that."

Bo stared. The music stopped as whatever playlist Lauren had broadcast ended right at that moment, and suddenly, the only sound in the room was the faint whir of the fan over the stove.

"If you're going to leave town," Lauren said in the heavy quiet. "Perhaps never to come back to this colony, I want you to know that I'm sorry, that I wish it would have been possible to do things differently." She smiled, but there was no humor in it. "But I'm glad that you're stronger now, that you know more about who you are."

Bo saw nothing but sincerity, and if this proposal of a clean slate was the very best that might happen between them, did she want to let that slip away? When looking into Lauren's eyes grew too intense, she looked at the rest of her - the untouchable lines of jaw and neck and the way her hair fell over one shoulder. This was as close as she was going to get. Did she want to fight again over what couldn't be changed?

Having said her piece, Lauren took another sip from her glass, set it down with finality, and waited.

Lauren was waiting for her to leave.

In that moment, Bo saw the depth of Lauren's regret and sadness, yet Lauren smiled at her with understanding. And that's when Bo remembered who Lauren was.

Lauren was the woman who'd made Bo stop, and given her the path to a whole new life. One where she didn't have to hide in dark alleys, where she didn't need to pretend she was something or someone other than herself. A life without being a murderer.

Bo supposed that deserved at least a lukewarm dinner and an uncomfortable conversation.

She sighed, and leaned forward to slowly push Lauren's plate back in place. "I hope you don't expect me to bare my soul."

"No, no, of course not." Lauren said, and if she was pleased that Bo was staying a little longer, she didn't let it show. "In fact, maybe you should ask me what _you_ want to know." She took another sip from her glass. "Ask me anything,"

Bo couldn't even get the words out. She remembered how helpless she'd been in captivity, and this woman was the reason she'd been there, but she'd accepted Lauren's olive branch. There was only one question that mattered but she couldn't form the words quickly enough, couldn't find the right words that wouldn't shatter things before they'd even begun.

Maybe it was plain on her face, because Lauren reached out a hand to fiddle with her chopsticks.

"When I left your...place," she said. "I had to find some way to get you off the streets before the wrong people found you. I thought about Dyson at first, because he'd listen to me and wouldn't hurt you, but he'd only be able to keep the Light Fae at bay. If the Dark Fae found you...if Vex found you…"

The thought of Vex was unsettling. That man was dangerous.

"That's when I decided to get to the council as soon as possible. I had to tell them about you - because if they all knew, then no one of them would be able to keep you locked away."

She poked at her food as she spoke, but then took a bite.

Bo did the same.

"I didn't expect them to find you so quickly," Lauren said a few bites later. "Though I was grateful that it had been Dyson. I shudder to think about what might have happened if he hadn't. But then they tried to handle you like some kind of kid instead of a grown-assed woman who'd lived on her own for years. I'm so sorry, Bo. I couldn't do anything about their inbred Fae arrogance. They just wouldn't see."

Bo didn't have a response. What could Lauren have done differently?

"And then I realized that Evony would propose that they hold you in her dungeons, and I couldn't let that happen. You have no idea what goes on there, Bo. It's terrifying, and I...I didn't want that to happen to you."

Now that Bo knew a bit more about the Dark Fae, she understood.

"I know that you hated me for locking you up," Lauren said. "I hated the idea myself, but until you knew exactly what they stakes were, you were in danger, Bo, and you weren't going to listen to me because you thought I was making it all up."

Bo couldn't argue with that point. She had thought Lauren was crazy at first. Who wouldn't, with all her talk about fantastic creatures like the Fae - even though, deep down, Bo had known it was true?

"I'm sorry it came to that. Really, I am, but...in the limited amount of time I had to make a case, in the state I was in - and I don't blame you for that, Bo, I don't, but at the time, there was no other way to keep you safe."

And it was clear that she believed that. Bo thought about her time in captivity, and though it had been difficult and painful, Bo had made it harder on herself by not listening to Lauren in the first place.

Lauren had been right about everything. So...could Bo get past this?

She finished another bite of stir-fry, trying to buy herself time to think of a response.

"Well, you did fix my car, so I guess I can try to let it go." It was a weak attempt at humor, and didn't begin to address the bigger issues, but Bo said it anyway.

To Bo's surprise, Lauren eyes shone with gratitude for a moment. Then she blinked, and the shine was gone.

They finished their meal in silence. Bo was lost in thought, wondering about what she'd been told about the Dark Fae - and considering the possibility that perhaps the Light Fae weren't so different.

She set her napkin on the table, and looked up to find Lauren staring at her.

"Is there something on my face?"

Lauren had the decency to look chagrined. "I'm sorry, Bo. I'm just so curious about you, but I don't want to ask what are probably very personal questions."

"Like what?" Bo said, dreading an inquiry into her terrible past. She prayed it wasn't something macabre, like how many people she'd killed.

Lauren looked nervous, but forged ahead. "Are you really from a small-town? Or was that just to throw off the council?"

Definitely not what Bo had expected.

Bo looked for any sign of subterfuge on Lauren's part, but she didn't see anything other than honest curiosity. Still, it wasn't easy to set aside years of solitude and secrecy. Bo hadn't shared the details of her old life with anyone. Trick had only heard simple summaries that told the facts but not the depth of them, and she'd only talked about the years of hunting with her therapists.

But this was Lauren...did she want to hold back when Lauren herself was starting to open up?

She sighed. Well, there were things she wanted to know about Lauren, so…

"I'll make you a deal," Bo said. "I'll answer your questions if you'll answer mine. Tit for tat."

Lauren raised an eyebrow in response to Bo's choice of words.

Bo tried not to blush. "So to speak." It was ...weird. This woman turned Bo into her old small town self, which kind of answered Lauren's question, not that Lauren would know.

Lauren's expression was undecipherable. Bo wondered if Lauren was about to back down, and was surprised to find herself disappointed.

Finally, Lauren tossed her napkin on the table and stood.

"We're gonna need more wine."

XX - XX - XX - XX - XX

"Seriously? Miss Cherry Blossom?" Lauren squinted in disbelief.

"Three times," Bo said.

"Impressive," Lauren said, though it didn't sound like she meant it.

Bo found herself amused.

The back and forth between them, question for question, hadn't been as serious as Bo feared, though it still made her uncomfortable. She'd told Lauren that she hadn't finished high school, that she'd traveled back and forth across the country several times, and even made it across the border and back a few times, that she had a soft spot for Kenzi though she didn't say why.

Lauren had told Bo she'd been raised by big city suburbanites near Calgary, had spent some time in Afghanistan, and never owned her own car.

Bo had revealed how she'd swindled the Camaro out of a junkyard owner a few years back and it was her pride and joy.

Not one question from Lauren was about living without knowing she was a succubus, and Bo hadn't gotten around to asking Lauren how she'd found out about the Fae.

In fact, they hadn't talked about the Fae at all.

They were halfway through the second bottle when a question popped into Bo's head and fell out of her mouth.

"What do you honestly think one human can accomplish on that council?" Bo asked. "I mean, I'm all for human equality, and the way Fae treat humans as a whole is archaic, but there's only one of you."

Lauren raised her eyebrows to indicate she conceded the point. "True, and I've only been here five years, attempting to change hundreds if not thousands of years of tradition, but we've got to start somewhere."

She stood to clear the table. They'd been talking over empty plates for awhile. "It'll take decades to make any headway with the Dark Fae, but I'm pleased with the progress I've made with the Light."

Bo carried the remainder of the dishes to the kitchen counter, and then walked over to where Lauren was rinsing them in the sink. She helped Lauren load the dishwasher. "Why do you think it'll take so much longer with the Dark Fae?" Bo asked once the dishes were done.

Lauren laughed as she dried her hands on a dishtowel. "Have you _met_ Evony?"

Bo had, in the council chambers and again in closer quarters, and she didn't trust that woman at all.

"Yes, yes I have," Bo said darkly. "She tried to seduce me into choosing the Dark."

"What?" Lauren's expression hardened, and she sounded...possessive.

Interesting.

Bo walked back to the table and refilled their wine glasses. She handed Lauren her glass, then followed her over to the couch.

"She offered me a nicer apartment, not once considering the fact that I was fine with where I was, and when I didn't bite, she insinuated that she might be a perk that came along with choosing a side."

Bo had seen through it all. As new as she was to the world of the Fae, she could still recognize a power play when she saw one, and Evony had treated her like a valuable chess piece...which meant there was a greater game at play that Bo didn't understand, and wanted no part of.

Evony had also told her that she could have as many humans to feed on as she wanted, and the Dark Fae would be happy to help her clean up the mess. Her words, not Bo's.

"Jesus," Lauren said, and Bo realized she'd said that last bit quietly out loud. She hadn't meant to tell Lauren any of it, but now that she had…

"I don't need _cleaners_ , for god's sake. I need to not kill anyone at all, ever again." She paused to consider her history. "If I can…"

She didn't want to go down this road again right now. Bo had to believe that those days were behind her.

"Can we just...talk about something else for once?" She was trying to relax, but talking about her murderous history wasn't exactly stress reducing. Bo stuffed her annoyance down and took another sip of wine. "What's your story?"

When Lauren didn't answer right away, Bo was intrigued. "How does an accomplished doctor - a _human_ doctor - end up with the Fae?"

"I was in the Congo working with a small team on a research grant when we got word of a deadly virus in several nearby villages, and I was one of the volunteers who went to help. I discovered that the virus was only affecting one group of people, who turned out to not be people at all, at least not in the homo sapiens sense."

"A deadly Fae virus."

"Mm. Killed 74 Fae in less than a month."

That would have been twice the size of her senior class in high school. "Jesus. How'd you find a cure?"

Lauren leaned toward Bo, her enthusiasm about her work once again sharpening her movements. "It took us nearly ten days of working around the clock to isolate the pathogen, but once we did, we were able to -"

She stopped, looking closely at Bo.

"What?" Bo wondered again if she had something on her face.

Lauren looked shy again. "Maybe I should just stick to the story and not bore you with the science. That's usually when I lose people."

Bo wasn't bored at all. It was kind of a turn-on when Lauren geeked out, but it didn't answer her original question.

"So the Fae just gave you a seat on the council in gratitude?"

"Ahh, no." She took a deep breath and started again. "I didn't know he was the Ash at the time, but Trick was there acting as a liaison to the local Light Fae elder on behalf of the Blackthorn." She waited for Bo's nod of understanding of the political figures involved before she continued. "Trick and I had several conversations once I determined that there was a significant genetic difference among the afflicted. I suppose he could have locked me up, or strong-armed me into healing the Fae, but he didn't, and I devised a cure."

Lauren stared across the room like she was looking into the past.

"The village elders didn't agree, despite what I'd done to help them, and wanted me put to death. I told Trick that they could kill me to keep it quiet, if that's what their rules required, but that sooner or later, someone like me would figure it out.

"We had several conversations about the future of the Fae, especially in terms of human technological development, as I mentioned earlier. Eventually, Trick agreed with me." Lauren shrugged. "I made a proposal to act as a human liaison, but Trick took it a step further and proposed a seat on the council."

Bo was surprised at this. Trick didn't strike her as magnanimous. She wondered how long it would take Trick to live up to his name.

"The Light Fae agreed unanimously, but the Dark Fae weren't open to the idea. Some machinations happened without my knowledge, but before long, I was installed on the council."

That sounded much too simple, and considering what she knew about Evony, she wondered what the long game was for all of them.

"Still, I was shocked, Bo, to learn about how humans are treated within the Fae world."

Bo swallowed in shame and discomfort. She had nothing to say to that, since she herself had left so many bodies in her own, she couldn't even talk about it.

"Yet for all their cruelty and intolerance," Lauren said, "they are the most fascinating beings I've ever encountered." Her eyes lit up as she shook her head.

"You envy them." Bo couldn't believe it. Did Lauren wish she were Fae?

Lauren averted her eyes, and worried at the seam of her jeans with her hand. "I admire their resilience and complexity. And who wouldn't want a lifespan measured in hundreds of years? I mean, Dyson is over 1200 years old. Can you imagine?"

Bo refused to think about that, the possibility that she would live for hundreds of years. Lots of people wished they could live forever, but she couldn't imagine it at all.

As for Dyson...she wasn't sure what to make of him. They'd spoken several times, but the conversation always seemed stilted. It might have been easier if she'd slept with him and moved along, if that was his issue. He always looked at her like he was expecting something out of her, some action he expected her to take and was bothered when she didn't, though they didn't speak about much beyond happenings at the Dal.

"And Trick has lived even longer."

That gave Bo pause. She didn't know how old her grandfather was, but whenever he talked about the pivotal historical events in Fae history that had happened hundreds of years ago, he spoke like he'd been there. He was much too passionate in his endless lessons on the history of the Fae and the repercussions of the war between Light and Dark that had ended centuries ago.

She emptied her glass thinking about Trick. He insisted that Bo must choose the Light, that her place was with him, that she'd finally found a home - except he wouldn't answer the questions that were most important to her. He never said a word about his daughter.

Bo was sure that Trick was keeping her from her mother.

"I wouldn't trust him, if I were you," B said.

Lauren glanced at her in surprise. "I'm not sure I trust any Fae unconditionally, but I'm curious why you'd say that." She frowned. "Is there something I should know?"

Trick had held back details from her, but couldn't say what he might have withheld from Lauren.

"I know that -" Lauren stopped herself. "Never mind."

"What?"

"I promised no Fae politics." Lauren made a face in chagrin. "I want to keep my promises to you," she added quietly.

Bo tried not to read too much into that.

"Well, just this once, go ahead," she said.

"If the choice is between Trick and Evony…" Lauren tilted her head from side to side. "Trick may be secretive and even duplicitous. I know he keeps his own counsel, even from other Light Fae, but Evony…" She trailed off, reached a hand across the distance between them and lay her hand gently on Bo's wrist in warning. "Evony is truly dangerous. People who cross her disappear, and she is far too fickle which makes crossing her an easy thing to do even if you don't intend to."

The heat of Lauren's skin against her own made Bo suck in a breath. She heard Lauren's warning about the Morrigan - and it wasn't far from her own assessment - but she couldn't give it the attention it deserved. A wave of heat moved through body, and she tried not to let it show how Lauren was affecting her.

Lauren realized where her hand was, and pulled it away awkwardly. "But to your original point, with present company excluded," Lauren said with a soft smile, "I tend to keep my distance from most of the Fae I know. There are a couple of folks on my staff who I know a little better than most, but I think of them more as colleagues, not really friends." She retrieved her glass and took what looked like a bracing sip.

"What about Dyson?" Bo asked. "Or Kenzi?"

Lauren thought for a moment. "Dyson is probably the closest I have to a friend, but it's a new development and I don't think I'll ever be able to truly confide in him. He still sees me as a fragile human much of the time. And Kenzi, well." Lauren laughed. "She and I, despite being the only humans with as much free rein as we have, we're from completely different worlds. She tolerates me, but we're not what I'd call close."

"So how do you separate your human life from your life around the Fae?"

"I don't." She stroked the stem of her glass. "You're looking at about as much human life as I'll allow myself. I don't want to bring any other humans near this world. It's too dangerous, and I gave my word."

"How do you mean?"

"I swore that I would never tell a living human soul about the Fae, under penalty of death."

Bo sputtered the wine she was sipping.

"It's serious business," Lauren said. "I know of several cases of people who defied the One Rule. Most met excruciatingly painful deaths, but a few are being tortured in Evony's prisons. At least the Light grants a quick execution."

That didn't sound particularly benevolent to Bo, and she looked at Lauren in horror. Is that what Lauren had been trying to save Bo from? And how much danger was Lauren in every day by sitting on that council?

Her horror must have shown on her face.

"Don't worry about me, Bo," Lauren said lightly. "I knew what I was getting into when I chose this life over death years ago in central Africa. And for as hard as it is, I don't regret it."

But Bo as looked at Lauren, and looked once again around the apartment, she could see the isolation. She knew what it was like to be surrounded by people yet live a solitary life.

Bo's arousal tapered but soon the heat became a distraction as the conversation turned to lighter topics yet again.

Lauren's signals were off. Her body language and tone and the way she sometimes looked at Bo all indicated that she was attracted to Bo and wanted to do something about it, but each time Bo got that feeling, Lauren would close down one channel. Lauren would lean toward Bo, but look away, or look at Bo like she wanted to jump her but would then speak in a cold, distant tone.

It was making Bo crazy - she couldn't see any sign of the adorable yet sexy woman who'd come up to her at that club and led her around by the hand, refusing to let Bo get away.

"Why were you even at the club that night? You never did tell me what you were celebrating." Of course, they hadn't had a civil conversation since that night, and even then they hadn't done much talking.

For a moment, Bo was distracted remembering the way Lauren had danced with her. She ignored the ache that filled her.

Lauren rolled her eyes. "A series of experiments I'd been running for months finally yielded some positive results. In retrospect, it was a weak reason to drive hours away to a grungy warehouse for unimaginative cocktails, but…" she shrugged. "I was in the mood for something new."

Well, she'd certainly gotten that, but her being in that rave had kicked off a series of events for Bo that she was still processing months later.

"What brought you there?" Lauren asked.

Bo wondered if Lauren realized what an enormous can of worms she'd opened.

"On second thought, let's skip that for now," Lauren said, and Bo wondered she'd seen on Bo's face to change her mind. She looked like she was trying to shore up some courage for her next question and Bo braced herself.

"Why are you really leaving, Bo? Is it because you found the answers you needed?"

Bo was leaving with more questions than she'd had when she'd arrived several months ago, but that wasn't the reason she had to go.

"I guess I…" Bo couldn't look at Lauren while she answered, not if she was going to tell the truth. She'd lose her nerve. "I thought that once I knew what I was, that things would be better. Even after I got used to the idea that this is permanent, that I'm a succubus -"

The word still didn't roll off her tongue.

"I kept waiting for this, this _itch_ to go away, and it hasn't." She chanced a glance at Lauren and didn't see pity or disapproval, only the need to understand. "I know that you all say that I'm safe now, that I'm with my people, but it just doesn't feel like…" The words wouldn't come.

"It's not home," Lauren said when Bo grew quiet.

Wasn't that the truth? Bo still didn't fit in, and the one thing everyone said would make a difference - choosing a side - didn't feel right either.

"Where do you think you'll go?" Lauren held up a hand. "I'm not asking about the particulars, because I don't think you want anyone to know where you're headed, but…" She frowned. "How will you feed if you won't feed from humans, Bo? How will you survive?" Her concern knit her eyebrows even further.

"I'll be fine," Bo said. She was a survivor, and she got that way by keeping her plans to herself, but she could give Lauren a little information. "Part of my studies with Trick included detailed geography of Fae colonies on this continent. I'm perfectly capable of staying off human radar, now that I'm not...hunting...the way I was, so I should be ok. I'll make sure to sign in at Fae wayposts in each colony so I don't start any trouble."

"But you're unaligned -"

"And I'll ride that out as long as I can." Neither Light nor Dark had been entirely welcoming, but though they'd insisted she choose a side, they hadn't given her any kid of deadline. And she wanted to be gone before they did.

"But what happens if -"

Bo laughed at Lauren's persistent concern. It was kind of sweet. "Lauren, I made it this far. The rules have changed, but the game is the same." She paused to consider how much had changed. "I'll figure it out." She always did, and now there would be one significant difference. She wouldn't leave any dead bodies behind.

Lauren wiped her hands on her jeans. "How did you do it, Bo?" Lauren spoke in a near whisper. "Not knowing you were Fae, for all those years...how did you not lose your mind?"

Bo wasn't sure she was sane.

She stared out the windows into the dead of night. It felt late - after midnight, for sure. This conversation had stretched out much longer than she'd intended. Change the subject, or tell the truth? Her lack of response wasn't an uncomfortable silence, and until she spoke, she didn't know how she'd respond to Lauren's question.

"Hope, I guess," Bo said.

Lauren leaned a little closer, but Bo didn't think she was aware she was doing it.

"I'll be honest with you, Lauren, there was some very dark times." Which was putting it mildly, but her sessions with the shame-devouring therapist had helped put some things in perspective. "Times when I wasn't sure that I could go on, when I thought I _was_ insane...But I've always hoped that someday I'd find out what I was, and I'd learn how to stop, how to fix it and that, maybe, I'd have a chance at a normal life."

She reached for the bottle to pour more wine, and wondered why she wasn't the least bit intoxicated.

"A normal life?"

Bo imagined it the way she always had. A husband - or a wife. A child with her eyes. A house in the country where she could make a home the way she'd always wanted. A place of her own. A place to belong.

She cleared her throat and shook off the melancholy. That life wasn't meant for her. And her life now was so much better than it had been. She hadn't killed anyone in months. She didn't walk through the day with aches and pains from not having fed. Some of the dark had been lifted from her life, thanks to therapy and the changes that Lauren had influenced.

Didn't touch the loneliness, though.

"Yeah, you know. House, partner, kids. A couple of cats."

"Ah." Lauren nodded as she turned sideways to rest an arm on the back of the couch, and propped her head on her hand. ""I used to want that, too. Seems like a lifetime ago, though."

Bo raised an eyebrow.

Lauren bowed her head with a shy smile. "Her name was Nadia. I met her when I was in medical school. She was - is - a photographer. A successful one, too, last time I had the poor sense to Google her."

She leaned back on the arm of the couch and rested the base of her glass on one bent leg. "She was smart, outgoing, gorgeous, sexy as hell."

Bo smiled. "Sounds like my kinda girl."

"Oh, you two would have gotten along famously, I'm sure. She was the life of the party." Lauren watched the wine swirl in her glass. "I thought we'd be together forever."

"So what happened?"

"Nadia was tolerant of my work for the most part because she knew that she was the only human being who held my attention for very long. I was always immersed in some project, but she'd could pull me out of it." She raised the glass to her lips, and Bo could tell she was getting to the hard part of the story. "Until something came along I couldn't say no to."

She took another sip of wine, and then set the glass on the low coffee table. "We were engaged, and talked about setting a date, but I was invited to participate in a once in a lifetime opportunity. A research study in the Congo." Lauren raised her eyebrows in emphasis.

"Oh."

"I had no idea, of course, how much that assignment would change my life, but Nadia said that I was choosing my work over her again and she was tired of it. She left me the week before I left."

"Has there been anyone else since then?" Bo wasn't sure why she was asking.

Lauren was startled. "No. No, of course not."

"Not even someone the council doesn't know about?" Why was she digging deeper on this? "A sexy research assistant on the side?"

"No. I couldn't imagine having a lover while doing my work with the Fae. Too dangerous."

"So you've been alone for five years?"

Lauren's stare told Bo she was one to talk, which was fair. Bo hadn't been in a relationship since -

Bo shut down that line of thought before it could take shape.

XX - XX - XX - XX - XX

Lauren split the last pour of wine between their glasses and set the bottle on the table with a loud thunk.

"That's the last bottle of my favorite wine."

Bo savored it with a hum. "Thanks for sharing it."

Lauren smiled. "The occasion called for the good stuff."

Bo leaned back, and realized her earlier tension was gone.

Lauren's movements were slowing down and becoming more precise, a clear indication that some of the alcohol was kicking in. Now, whenever she looked at Bo, she lingered a beat longer than the conversation called for.

Bo took a deep breath and tried calm herself. The slow burn that always simmered within Bo flared at Lauren's increased arousal, and it was harder for Bo to ignore.

She wished Lauren was Fae.

"There it is again," Lauren said, her voice softer than before. "That same look I saw that night." Bo knew which night she meant. "Like you had the weight of the entire world on your shoulders, but that you'd never put it down."

And here Bo thought she was more relaxed than she had been earlier in the evening.

"You looked untouchable that night, like you were there, but not part of anything around you. It was impossible for me to look away. And you were the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen." She blushed and looked away. "Though I'm sure you get that a lot, hmm?"

Bo did, but it didn't usually make her light-headed to hear it.

Lauren looked hungry again, staring like she could barely contain herself from closing the distance between them, but she didn't move. She blinked, realizing what she was doing, and glanced away. She sat up, rested her elbows on her knees and looked out the window with a sigh. "It's later than I thought. Or, earlier maybe."

Bo looked out the window and saw the sky was lighter. They'd talked through the whole night. For the first time in a very long while, she'd lost track of time over the last couple of hours. It wasn't an altogether unwelcome feeling.

"I really do hope the best for you Bo. I don't know what you're searching for, but I hope you find it. And I doubt you'll use it, but if you ever need anything, you have my number."

Lauren stood and took a step towards the door. "I guess I shouldn't keep you any longer." Her back was turned, and she sounded sad. Bo was disappointed that she couldn't see her face, but watched as Lauren took a deep breath and set her shoulders.

When she turned around, her face inscrutable but her aura clear as day to Bo. Lauren wanted her, but wasn't going to do a thing about it.

Bo clenched a fist at her side, and hoped Lauren couldn't see it.

Perhaps it was a matter of seduction, of Lauren not wanting to make the first move. It was foolish of Bo to even try - she couldn't actually follow through, could she? Still, flirtation and seduction were second nature, and though she probably could stop herself, she didn't want to.

In this, Bo knew who she was and what she could do.

"I'm surprised, doctor," Bo said, and the effect her low voice had on Lauren was immediate. Her scent became even sweeter, and it made Bo ache to pulse her, to taste her and make Lauren hers. "Most of the colony wants to take me to bed, and yet you're kicking me out the door."

"I'm not, really, but I don't want to stand in your way," Lauren said. " And taking you to bed wasn't part of the plan for the evening."

There it was again. The disconnect between Lauren's words and what her body was saying.

Bo toyed with her empty glass. She should take Lauren at her word and leave. She should ignore the need coming from Lauren in waves - need that Lauren was trying to suppress - walk out that door, get in her car, leave this town and never look back.

They were staring at each other again.

"Why are you lying to me, Lauren?" Bo whispered. "Are you scared of me?"

Lauren looked caught - and horrified. "I - " She took a step closer. "No, Bo. I'm not afraid of you. Far from it. I just -"

"The truth," Bo said.

Lauren shrugged, and then it seemed she couldn't fight whatever she was fighting anymore. "I said dinner, and I don't want that to be a lie. We've only tonight gotten to the point where we can speak to each other without it being weighted by everything that happened before, and I...I don't want to say anything, do anything to make you question my motives."

She shrugged again, slower, perhaps, because of the wine. "And I know you're nervous about humans, and I don't want to push."

And there it was - and "nervous" was an understatement.

"Though I'm not as concerned about that as you are," Lauren said.

How could she not be concerned? She could die if Bo made one wrong move - but perhaps that was part of the attraction. Bo hoped not - it made her feel like a carnival ride.

"What are you, some kind of thrill-seeker?" It sounded more cutting than she intended, but - maybe Lauren had a death wish. Bo remembered how she hadn't had to drag Lauren kicking and screaming into the dark corners of that club.

It ached in an altogether different way entirely to think that Lauren only wanted her because she was some kind of novelty.

"No, Bo." Lauren shook her head without looking away. "Despite any evidence to the contrary, I don't take unnecessary risks." She licked her lips and spoke again. "I know what you are, and I know how powerful - perhaps more than you do - but I also know how far you've come." She seemed suddenly sober. "But I don't think I'm the one who needs to be convinced."

Was that a dare?

Bo couldn't get enough air, but it had nothing to do with how much she wanted Lauren. If she was wrong, if this turned into what she feared, it would be the biggest mistake she'd ever made, and she wasn't sure that she'd recover.

Yet the way she felt when Lauren looked at her meant the decision was already made.

She stood and stepped closer, breathing in Lauren's scent - her skin and her arousal. Lauren didn't move - she waited as Bo came closer, until they were only a breath apart.

"Last chance," Bo said, part of her hoping that Lauren would back down.

Lauren reached to take one of Bo's hands in her own. Before Bo said another word, Lauren closed the distance between them and kissed her.

Too softly for Bo's tastes, Lauren brushed her lips against Bo's, but then the gentle play of the tip of Lauren's tongue against Bo's lips made her sigh, and when Lauren deepened the kiss, she growled.

Then, she remembered Lauren was human, and the knowledge made her tremble.

"Lauren, I -"

Lauren interrupted with a kiss. "I know."

"No, you don't. I could kill you."

Lauren traced Bo's cheek with her fingers. "You won't hurt me, Bo."

How could she be so sure?

Then she thought about the days that she'd nursed Lauren back to health, holding herself back from hurting her - and that was when she'd been desperate to feed. If she'd managed then…

Could she manage now?

"I see you, Bo Dennis." Lauren's whispers made Bo shiver. "I see how hard you try, I see how much you care, and I see how much you hurt but you don't want anyone to know."

She pressed her hand against Bo's chest, the heel of her palm between Bo's breasts. "I believe in you. Believe _with_ me."

Bo felt like she was standing at the edge of a cliff. If she jumped, Lauren might die, but Bo couldn't back away, not now. The woman she wanted, the woman she thought completely unattainable, wanted her back. Here in the light of a new day, the impossible was fast becoming a reality if she could set aside her fears.

With Lauren this close, her hand cool against Bo's hot skin, there was only one choice.

"Slow, ok?" Bo said, and then laughed as she blinked away tears she didn't want or need. "I know that's crazy coming from something like me -"

"Some- _one_ ," Lauren corrected. "And it's not crazy." She smiled, and there was a touch of wickedness there that made Bo's heart pound. "And I don't mind _starting_ slowly at all." She trailed her hand down Bo's body to stroke fingertips along Bo's hip. "But don't think it's going to stay that way," she said as she squeezed with surprising strength.

Bo gasped.

In three steps, she had Lauren pinned against a wall, and heard books fall over somewhere - not that she cared. She pressed a thigh between Lauren's and buried her face in Lauren's neck, thrilled to be tasting skin she'd been staring at all night. When Lauren moaned, though, she stopped - trying to rein herself in.

Bo took a deep breath. "Can we move to your bed, or is it covered with books, too?" She hoped the joke hid her nervousness, but Lauren's reassuring squeeze of her hand said otherwise.

Lauren led her by the hand, and like that first night, wouldn't let her go.

"Keeping me captive?" Bo instantly regretted her word choice.

Lauren stopped outside the door to her bedroom and raised their clasped hands to brush one of her fingers along Bo's cheek. "I don't want you to get away. Just like that first time. I knew that if I let you go, you'd disappear."

Bo couldn't argue with that.

Lauren's bedroom was cool and darker than the living room had been. Charcoal nudes decorated the eggplant walls, and Lauren may not have ever brought anyone here, but there was room for three on her bed.

Lauren turned to face her. "Are you going to try to get away?"

Bo saw the erotic intent in Lauren's brown eyes and shook her head.

Lauren let go of her hand.

While Bo watched, Lauren removed her clothes, lingering over buttons and zippers while Bo damned near lost her mind.

"You said slow," Lauren said.

"You're a tease, doctor."

Lauren smiled, kicking away her boots and then her jeans. "Just keeping my word."

Naked in the pale morning light, she looked ethereal - but with taut nipples and trembling hands, she was also all too human.

"Now you," Lauren said.

Bo was more impetuous, and stripped quickly.

Lauren tossed the covers back on the bed, lay herself across it and beckoned Bo to join her. When Lauren's warm skin finally pressed against her own, she nearly lost control, but then Lauren's kiss grounded her.

Lauren rolled Bo over on her back, melding herself everywhere as she kissed Bo again, then kissed along her jaw.

"I know you want me to fuck you," Lauren whispered in her ear, and Bo almost came just hearing the words. "But that's going to have to wait."

And then Lauren had her way.

With lips, tongue and teeth against only Bo's breasts, Lauren drove Bo to her first orgasm. The second was with her fingers, achingly slow against Bo's clit while Lauren kissed her without stopping, swallowing Bo's cries with moans of her own. The third was with her tongue, face between Bo's thighs, sucking with maddening pressure repeatedly until Bo came so hard she bit her lip, tasting her own blood.

Then finally, pinned to the bed by Lauren's delicious weight, Bo moaned low in welcome when Lauren began a slow, rhythmic thrusting of her fingers. She answered each thrust with her hips, and they picked up speed together, Lauren moaning as they left "slow" behind.

Bo hadn't even touched Lauren yet.

Lauren's kisses were still tender, but deep, languid strokes of her tongue against Bo's were paired with a driving pace that made Bo dig her heels into the bed. Lauren reached with her other hand to sink her fingers into the hair at the nape of Bo's neck, and when she clenched her fingers into a fist, she drew Bo's head back against the bed, arching her neck, arching her back, and the pace became the deep fuck that Bo wanted, that she needed, that drove all thought from her mind, no fear, nothing but Lauren's scent, and Lauren's skin, and Lauren's hand until -

"Come for me," Lauren commanded.

White light, and a ringing in Bo's ears - she didn't make a sound, but she came, so hard - so _good -_ the orgasm stretching longer than she thought possible.

When it passed, Lauren stroked her flesh calm, moaning herself, pleased with what she'd wrought.

Damn.

Bo wanted Lauren slick against her fingers, and sweet against her tongue.

The angle of the sun changed while they loved, but Bo barely noticed. She took Lauren in every way from every angle that came to mind, made her sing, made her cry out, branded her inside and out.

She felt the stirring within her, the urge to take what Lauren hadn't yet offered, but she didn't want that. She didn't want to feed from Lauren. It was too dangerous.

Bo shook her head, trying to dislodge the thought from her mind, and focused again on what she was doing.

Lauren was on her back, and Bo straddled one of her thighs. Lauren stroked Bo's clit once more, her pace steady - maddening again - her breath heavy as Bo fucked her for the third time.

"Are you going to wait for me this time?" Bo asked as Lauren gripped her arm tighter, felt the swelling of flesh that meant Lauren was moments away from orgasm.

Lauren shook her head, her hair wild on the pillows. "I can't - ahh!" She cried out as she arched her back, losing the rhythm as she lost herself in orgasm, regaining it when she recovered.

Immersed in the scent and sounds and taste and touch, Bo sank into the simple physical relief of the life-giving power that sex was to her.

The need grew again, and like before she tried to push it aside, but Lauren coming wasn't enough, not even on her tongue. Bo wanted to _taste_ her, all of her, and wanted every part of this woman to be hers.

"You are delicious," she said, and watched the widening of Lauren's eyes at the change in Bo's voice. It had acquired a new depth, a new resonance, and Bo knew that her own eyes were flaring blue.

"Just a taste," Bo said, and before Lauren could say another word, Bo began to feed.

Lauren tasted as Bo remembered - sweet, complex, _perfect._

Something feral inside her was content, quiet, and Bo closed her eyes.

XX - XX - XX - XX - XX

The moment Bo was conscious, she drew in a breath and held it, fear freezing her body where she lay in Lauren's bed.

She had done the one thing she wasn't going to do. She'd fed from a human - from Lauren.

Afternoon sun streamed through the window, highlighting dust motes sifted by the cool breeze through an open window. It looked like any other day, but it wasn't.

Not once Bo understood what her body was trying to tell her.

Lauren was warm along her back. Not the press of cold flesh from a body hours dead, but living heat from a body at rest, rising and falling with each breath.

Bo heard the sound of hitching breath, and realized it was her own. She closed her eyes against the tears, but they came anyway.

For years, she'd prayed for this. For a lover who'd lived to tell the tale, much less one who'd reached a place inside Bo that she'd thought lost forever.

Lauren stirred, pressed closer as Bo shook with sobs.

Ten years Bo had spent on the edge of madness, and now everything - every last thing about her life was different.

Lauren slid an arm around Bo's waist, and Bo felt her close all along her back, entangling her legs. She held Bo, silent and steady as Bo cried, squeezing tighter when the sobs were the worst, kissing the nape of Bo's neck and her shoulder when they eased.

The sunlight had faded to early evening by the time Bo was spent.

Lauren eased her hold and reached up to brush hair behind Bo's ear.

"Kinda late in the day to start a road trip, don't you think?" Her tone was light, not drawing attention to Bo's breakdown.

Bo rolled onto her back, one hand molding to Lauren's hip almost without her thinking about it. Lauren's tousled hair brushed against Bo's cheek.

Lauren's voice may have been light, but her eyes were not. Bo read the concern, tenderness, and surprisingly, fear. Bo wondered if Lauren knew how much of her heart was visible through her eyes. For as much as Lauren was a closed book most of the time, here in her bed, her feelings were naked on her face.

Lauren was afraid Bo regretted what they'd shared. And she was looking at Bo like a lover. A real lover, not just a quick lay before the parting of ways.

Every other time a lover had looked at Bo like that, nothing could come of it, but now…

Lauren was alive, and knew all the things about Bo that Bo had worked her whole life to keep hidden. Lauren knew who she was, knew _what_ she was, and was still looking at Bo like she were something precious, something cherished. A few more tears ran down Bo's cheek as she tasted the feeling of belonging, and the realization that for once, she could choose what happened next.

It took Bo a moment before she was able to speak.

"I suppose another day won't hurt." She blinked away fresh tears and pulled one of Lauren's hands tightly against her chest.

Lauren smiled, pale light twinkling in her eyes as she reached up to wipe the last trace of tears from Bo's face.

Bo smiled back.

 ** _\- FIN-_**

 _Thanks for reading!_

 _The original premise of the story was a response to a simple question: what if Bo met Lauren first instead of Kenzi? As you've read, the idea went off in a whole new direction - a dark and angsty direction, one where Lauren had more power in this world than canon, where Trick was more secretive, and where Bo's agency had to find another way to express itself._

 _Hopefully, you found it entertaining. (And I'm already considering a sequel, though you might have to wait awhile. Hint: whatever happened to Aife?)_

 _If you want to show me some love, give me a shout on Twitter - virginiablk517_

 _I'll also get some new work posted on as soon as I can._

 _If you're interested, check out my published work as well: my novella "BIG CITY BLUES" is available on Amazon, and my short story "Season Finale" is part of Sapphire Books' "FANDOM TO FANTASY" Anthology (Vol 1)._

 ** _Final word:_** _Thanks to *everyone* who's read this far, and to those who've tweeted or shared this story with others. I'll be back soon!_


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